Weeds grow, well, like weeds, out of the cracks of the pavement with nothing but municipal runoff to keep them alive. Meanwhile I have to work tirelessly to keep my tomato and pepper plants happy and fruitful. Why do weeds dominate a garden?
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the weeds you a have are perfect for the conditions they are in, you have to provide the perfect conditions for your plants
The weeds that are easy to kill never started growing in your garden. The plants that you want to grow didn’t start growing there naturally. So you have one set of plants (weeds that are growing) that have selected to grow specifically there, in that soil, in that climate, and another set of plants (plants you want to grow) that wouldn’t be there if you hadn’t specifically gone out of your way to put them where they weren’t already growing.
If you want a garden that’s easy to grow, using the native plants that are already in the immediate area helps.
“Weeds” is just a human word for the plant that is most optimal for the environment situation.
So naturally weeds grow better, as thats how nature works.
Where a seed lands, if it can grow, it will. The random seeds that blow in on the wind to your garden find an awesome environment, and thrive. If there’s any consolation, the problem means you’re doing it right.
There’s no such thing as a weed in nature. A weed is a subjective description invented by humans. Humans naturally like things which are scarce. Jewelry has little utility above other rocks, but we like gems because they’re rare. So a weed simply just means a plant that there is too much of, which results in a tautology of why there are always so many weeds.
Additionally, if you want a plant that does something useful, like have a big flower or fruit, you need to provide it with nutrients. Things we call weeds are generally plants that only need sunlight and water. And there are a lot of them because most soil does not have enough nutrients to bear fruit.
Weeds are the plants that have adapted to grow over all other plants in your area. They tend to germinate quickly, outcompete other plants, survive in the soil type, with the water levels, and with all other conditions of your environment better than all other plants in that area. They are not picky. They are essentially the billions happy to be served by fast food places. Desirable plants are ones that almost always come from different soil types, climates, and conditions from where you want to grow them. They have been bred to produce fruit or flowers or vegetables, and as a result have high nutritional needs that few soils provide. They are particular about their water, soil and sun requirements and force your to accommodate them, rather than being happy with what occurs naturally. They are essentially high maintenance customers that can’t be bothered to deal with the anything less than ideal conditions for their growth.
There’s an old adage in gardening, “a weed is just a plant in the wrong place.”
Arguably it should be “a plant is a weed in the wrong place.”
There are hundreds of thousands of plant species.
You are trying to grow a specific species.
What are the odds that the conditions in your garden will be ideal for *at least one* species out of those hundreds of thousands? Pretty high.
What are the odds that they’ll exactly match the ideal condition for *your specific species*? Much lower.
The definition of a weed is a rapid invader of disturbed habitat. They produce lots of seeds. The seeds stay viable for a long time.The plants grow quickly and are quite rugged. These characteristics make weeds very aggressive growers which are very hardy. They come in first because of these traits when a habitat is disrupted, and as time goes by are replaced by more desirable species. This often takes many years. They are part of the normal progression of plant types in the environment.
Some weeds are invasive species. They grow aggressively, because they are away from some checks on their growth that they have in their native range. The native wildlife might not like to eat them. Hopefully you aren’t trying to grow invasive species.
If you’re growing fruits or vegetables, they’ve been selectively bred to taste good. Some of them taste good to wildlife, too. Plants that the wildlife don’t eat are going to have an advantage over the ones they do eat. Fruit and vegetable plants have often been selectively bred to not have some of their natural defenses against being eaten, as well. Wild squashes, for example, contain a chemical called cucurbitacin, which tastes bitter. It’s one of the plant’s defenses against being eaten. We want to eat them, so we make sure to plant varieties that have less cucurbitacin. But that makes them more vulnerable to being eaten by other animals as well.
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