Could you actually be destroying your garden by removing its weeds?

Our natural inclination is to remove weeds the moment we spy them prising themselves through the soil. We've been indoctrinated that weeds are BAD and should be removed as quickly as possible. If left to their own devices, they will eventually rape and pillage our gardens.

But, could they actually be helping our gardens? Or, at the very least, could we USE them to help our gardens?

To answer the question we must first understand how weeds grow, and also why weeds grow.

How Weeds Grow

Stolen from The Ohio State University Extension

Weeds grow just the same as more desirable plants. They start as seed, germinate, grow, reproduce and set seed via their flowers and eventually die. Then the whole cycle recommences.

Now we all know that letting weeds go to seed, especially in our beautiful garden beds, is a catastrophe greater than Armageddon itself. But, allowing them to grow alongside our flowering plants could actually be quite beneficial.

Here's a list of reasons why they're more helpful than we think.

1. They provide great ground coverage halting erosion or top soil drift.
2. Weeds usually have longer taproots enabling them to draw more nutrients closer to the soil's surface.
3. They produce more green foliage for later reuse in our compost bins.
4. Some weeds are more preferred by insects and bugs which means they will hopefully leave our plants alone.

The problem with ripping weeds out from our garden beds is that this action always disturbs the micro ecosystems that have been built up around them. A better way to deal with these problem plants would be cut them off at ground level prior to flowering. This ensures that these ecosystems are not disrupted; that seeds aren't being spread throughout your garden; and, that most of the nutrients used from the weeds remain where they are. The rest can go into the compost heap.

In fact, it would be better to solarize your weeds or even use glyphosate on them than to handpick or dig them out.

Any other suggestions for living with weeds in your garden beds? Or, is this all a load of bollocks and we should continue weeding our gardens as we have done previously?