To Weed or Not to Weed

An Early Spring Question

As the darkness of winter finally gives way to longer periods of daylight, as gardeners our chore list starts to get longer.  Early spring can and is a busy time of year in the garden, but what if you have permission to do some of your chores at a slower pace.  I’m talking about removing some of the early blooming “weeds” out of the garden beds.  We all are aware about limiting fall clean-up of the perennial plants, leaving the leaves and bloom stalks for over wintering bees and insects. But in early spring, especially with warmth of spring becoming an earlier event, these emerging bees and insects need a food source to start their lifecycle.

Now I’m not suggesting not weeding at all but save some of these early blooming “weeds” for the bees.   In my garden I will leave some of these early bloomers until there are other things in the garden blooming to support the pollinators, or before they go completely to seed.  Things such as butter cups (Ranunculus occidentalis) are a little native boosting bright yellow bloom and is a good source of nectar for our pollinators. When you see country fields covered in early spring with these yellow blooms it is worthy of a painting.  Another “weed” I slowly phase out of my garden is ground ivy (Glechoma) this is a non-native in the mint family, so I only leave limited amounts of this plant at the borders of the bed, since it can spread quickly, I remove it when I notice the flower count declining, before it goes completely to seed. This plant has lavender blue blooms and fragrant foliage.  Since it stays close to the ground it works better at the edge of the garden.  Even though there are so many early blooming “weed” the last I want to mention is common blue violets (Viola sororia).  This native plant can be aggressive in seeding but has nice purple or bi-colored bluish and white blooms.  Violets are a nice addition to the garden, with its early blooming habit and nice green leaves if left controlled really works in a cottage style or woodland garden.

So, I hope you will consider leaving a few of these common “weeds” in your garden.  As I mentioned I’m not saying not to remove them at all, but slow down on the garden cleaning process.  I’m sure some of that time can be used to check something else off your ever-growing chore list.  And it is a benefit for the early pollinators as they emerge in the early spring.