Well we all hate to see a plot fill with weeds. This said I'm a bit picky. I just checked the plot behind the house to find lots of different weeds. The dreaded ones Chinese garlic,chick weed, and a few others. Then to my joy a whole lot of poke weed. The deer here love poke weed and seek it out. There is also wild raspberries. Another I like to see is black eyed Susan ,violets. So when seeing some weeds near if not in your plots consider what wild plants deer may prefer as they head into that plot or being browsers and not grazers what they may seek in your plot. Oh one thing I left out that is even better than poke weed...elderberry.now also to my delight this year there is an up tic in elderberry growth. The deer Will literally wipe out the elderberry brush every couple of years, it will suddenly recover and the cycle continues. Elderberry are popping up everywhere.
Bringing this back because I have to laugh .It got no responses after written, then today I see national deer association comes out with " deer hunters should be weed farmers" first on their list, my beloved poke weed with it's 36% protein.
Plantain....another weed for critters and you. O.K. bane of my existance becuause it is nearly impossible to get rid of in the garden. It is also the commercial source of physilium(?sp) husk. It's high in protein. It is an emergancy detox topical for wounds and bites. The seed heads can be cooked and tastes like baby corn. Plus greens can be cooked and eaten. Two types narrow and broad leafed
So wasn't planted as a weed but..... Orach..Orach is a less bitter alternative to spinach and is heat tolerant. It comes in green and purple. It also goes 4-6 feet tall. Now I really enjoyed it and when it went to seed late summer early fall because I tipped it picking and it continued sending out shoots , branching. What I did not know is it reseed it's self the following year. Now I saved a bag of seeds, it produces a lot. I didn't have to use them because it's every where. Tiny seedlings Transplant well,plus handled our freeze. This had me thinking this is a plant deer will browse. It's new so that will allow growth to a point that later nipping will just cause branching as it attemps to reach it's bush height of 4 - 6 ft . It could be plot planted as a feathering to field edges or as a type of thicket in the plot . Structure for Vining plants. As a type of screening in early bow before frost. Turkey would love it as well and planted right good for other game birds .. I have enough growing in the garden tosave seed so I can use last year's in the summer plots I'm planning this year. Type: How to grow Orach
