A weed is any plant not in a place where you want it to be. Even edible, medicinal, herbal plants, and even flowers, are weeds if you don’t want them where they pop up. Dandelions are a perfect example. In the lawn dandelions are weeds. Dandelions are edible and are used in salads and for dandelion wine.

For example:

• Flowers can make their way into your vegetable garden where you pull them out, like any other weed.
• Even a common flower, vegetable, or herb would be considered a weed, in the cracks of your driveway or sidewalk.
• Only a child considers dandelions in the lawn, to be anything other than a weed.
• I do not know a single person who likes ragweed in any way, shape, or form.
• Queen Anne’s Lace is a popular flower in English gardens. In the USA however, it is considered an invasive weed.
• Has anyone found a use for Tumbleweed?

Now, consider the reverse…..

• Imagine you are lost in the woods for days with no food or water. You come upon purslane, an otherwise common and pesky weed in the vegetable garden. This leafy, nutritious green is quite edible and may help to save your life.
• If you love your salad greens, then the tender inner leaves of dandelion plants belong in your fresh garden salad. It does not belong in your lawn. It may belong in your garden as a salad green.
• Dandelions are certainly not a weed if you are a vintner and want to make dandelion wine.
• Weeds offer food and shelter to birds and wildlife.
• Many weeds produce an attractive flower.
• Some weeds offer actual or potential medicinal value. Imagine if an obnoxious weed in your flower garden is someday identified as a cure for cancer or the common cold.