Eli5 Why are weeds so hard to kill while desirable plants so hard to keep alive?

Question

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?

In: 61

Answer 1

by definition.

If it doesn’t require constant human intervention to be pretty & alive, it’s unwanted and thus categorised as weeds. It’s about humans making themselves feel needed to keep something the way it is. Plants that don’t need us annoy us.