The Beauty of Diverse Farming: Making Weeds Work for You

It's a beautiful, overcast day perfect for spending quiet time in the garden.  And that's exactly where I've been.  As I worked, I realized how much easier I have it than conventional farmers.  I get the best of both worlds, and then some.  As I go through the garden beds and pull up weeds, I don't see them as a nuisance.  You see most "weeds" are edible.  Dandelions are a powerhouse of nutrition for example, but lesser known weeds are edible too.  I pull grasses, lady's thumb is coming up all over the place right now, and there's clovers, violet leaves, broadleaf plantain, yellow dock, the list goes on.  Of course what grows wild in your yard will vary, but once you start learning to identify what's around you- you may be surprised how much is edible.
So as I tend my garden beds, removing the plants I'd rather not have crowding out my strawberries and vegetables, I gather them into big bouquets and present them to my rabbits. It's an everybody wins situation.
I save money by not buying herbicides.
I save money on rabbit food as well since their diet is supplemented with fresh goodness and I can skip hay.
My garden benefits from getting to stay all natural, and some weeds are great decoys to insect pests.
My rabbits benefit from extra nutrition that's seasonal and fresh.
But isn't that a lot of extra work? You might wonder.  Nope. It's not at all.  Any garden will need tending. The time it takes to gently pull up some weeds can't be any more work than it takes to go through the same amount of space spraying something.  Plus even if you do spray, you will likely have some things to pull anyway.  Weeds are tenacious.  The time and effort it takes to bring what I have in my hands already to the rabbits isn't any more than carrying hay to all of them.  Plus I get a kick seeing how happy my rabbits are with the fresh variety.
So the view from here is that I'm saving money and coming out ahead just by letting nature do what it does and reaping the rewards.  Sometimes some of the weeds make it onto my plate too ;) but that's another post.

 Some things that grow along the borders of the driveway or yard, I just let grow!  Then I have beautiful wild greens like this burdock to pick leaves from and continue having free food.