Peter Andrews on Weeds

http://www.ecofilms.com.au/
Peter Andrews the creator of Natural Sequence Farming speaking about grasses and weeds and how to best manage them. This talk was recorded at Mulloon Creek NaturalFarms near Canberra. Read the Blog and learn more about this video at:

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Natural
• Sequence
• Farming
• Peter
• Andrews
• Weeds
• Mulloon
• Creek
• Permaculture

[matthockleeyvictoria]

Peter Andrews on Weed

[ScopedOUT2]

Hello EVERYONE!,

This year was my first year planting something on my own. It was an experimental farm. I DID NOT REMOVE WEEDS. I REPEAT! I DID NOT REMOVE WEEDS only a bit of grass to plant whatever I had to.

The only time I removed weeds, was when I noticed some invasive species growing, grass, or something that was over-growing whatever crops that needed sun.

Most things came out fine and I believe, much more nutritious.

[berondi]

@TTLM77 Having worked in degraded landscapes for over 10 years I would say that weeds are not the only things that grow there. Weeds in degraded landscapes can pose threats to remnant native vegetation in a number of ways, and these are widely known. Weedy species can serve an apparently beneficial role in ecosystem processes (e.g. preventing erosion or providing habitat for some native fauna) but usually the benefits are far less than the negative impacts. I'll still look up his books though!

[TTLM77]

@berondi i once thought peter was mad to like weeds. finishing a pharmacy degree, i believed technology and our sciences are so advanced. after i read and looking at the countryside(australia) i think we're stupid wanting to colonize another planet if we can neither maintain nor understand our own. in peter's defense, his love of weeds is because they serve a purpose. they are the only things that grow on degraded land, so we may as well learn to use them to our advantage. please read his books.

[Hamish121212]

I would really like to know how to control Bindieye. I have lots of Bindieye - and very little grass around the house.

[berondi]

@sizercam no i haven't but i'd be interested to read them. from the blurbs and reviews i have read of his book 'back from the brink' i expect i will disagree with some of his theories and agree with others.

[sizercam]

@berondi have you read his books?

[nonsquid]

Not to worry. My lawn and garden is more weeds than grass. My hybrid weeds are taking over. These weeds grow by inches a day and will take over the world. I have weeds taller than my garage.

[berondi]

some plants may be undesirable or even poisonous to stock. they'd be the agricultural weeds.

some plants invade native vegetation and displace indigenous species. they'd be the environmental weeds.

peter does not make any distinction between different types of weeds in this video and he implies that 'weeds' are good for the 'landscape'.  His lack of recognition of the different types of undesirable plants and their contexts, makes for poorly constructed and misleading arguments.