Hi all, I plan to keep certain weeds in my vegetable garden to help keep the soil healthy and retain moisture. This looks like it might be a keeper as long as it doesn't choke out my plants or attract pests. What is it? Common name is good, scientific name is preferable. The leaves and stems are smooth. I am looking to keep ground cover weeds in particular. Thanks.
There are 2 weeds in this picture. The taller one looks like common chickweed. If so it is an edible plant. The other weed, The one with the small purple flower I use as ground cover in my flower garden. I do not know what it is called, but I let it grow and only pull it if I really need to.
Yes, that is chickweed, and the purple bloomed one is ground ivy aka creeping charlie. Definitely get rid of them!
Thank you both! Will they choke out my plants, or can veggie plants grow through them? At this point, they are only in the pathways around the raised beds, so I'm not that concerned. I always lean towards keeping any edible and/or medicinal weed. My original idea was to only use broadleaf plantain in the paths, but I have to wait for the few that I have to go to seed. In the meantime, I need something to keep things from getting too muddy.
I just found that, even if I don't want it in my garden, I would want to keep it somewhere safe in the yard. Interesting info: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/chickweed-benefits#benefits But would it choke out my veggies?
The non-chickweed plant with the purple blooms looks a bit like Ajuga reptans 'Atropurpurea' at a glance. I have something similar in my garden.
