Eat Your Lawn | Identifying Edible and Medicinal Weeds in your Yard 

Imagine walking out and ser your neighbor sitting there eating his lawn😂

On Spring Beauty: "It's really not even a weed at all--it's just a beautiful wildflower from the forest that happened to volunteer to grow in your garden for you." I love the way you talk about these flower beings ^.^

1:15 Dandelion 2:00 Violet 3:12 Wood Sorrel 3:15 Sheep Sorrel 3:46 Purple Deadnettle 4:40 Henbit 5:20 Plantain 6:20 Ribleaf Plantain 7:00 Chickweed 7:45 Wild Chives 8:22 Spring Beauty 9:15 Bittercress 10:10 Garlic Mustard 11:18 Burdock

Why bother mowing the lawn when you got Andrew. Haha

this video clip should be an eye-opening experience to all

I love to walk around my yard and pick a salad from time to time. In the summertime I can get wild onion, blackberries, muscatine, broad leaf plantain, wild strawberries, honeysuckle and sour wood leaves. My wife and daughter thought that I was crazy, but they eat some of it now as well. Thanks for sharing!

I was curious about one flower in the garden. Tried googling it and found a different one that was in the garden too. It was bittercress. After trying that one I wanted to discover more. Now this is a nice rabbithole. Food and herbs are everywhere! Also, most people here buy violets to plant.

Here is some useful vocabulary for identifying plants! Andrew mentioned some of these words, but it is always good to have a list to get yourself started. These are the most common words that you might find in a field guide: Perennial: a plant that lives for more than two years (like the dandelion and plantain) Biennial: a plant that lives for two years (like the burdock) Annual: a plant that lives for only one year (like the chickweed) Basal leaves: leaves that sprout from the base of the plant and are not attached to the main stem (like the burdock, dandelion, and plantain) Cauline leaves: leaves that are attached to the main stem (like the garlic mustard and chickweed) Opposite leaves: leaves that are arranged opposite from each other on the stem (like the deadnettle, henbit, and chickweed) Alternate leaves: leaves that are staggered from each other on the stem (like the garlic mustard) Pubescent: this refers to a plant (or part of a plant) which is covered in tiny "hairs" (like the chickweed and deadnettle) Glabrous: this refers to a plant (or part of a plant) which is free of "hairs" (like the spring beauty and wild chives) Radial symmetry: this refers to a flower that looks the same no matter which way you rotate it, as all the petals are identically arranged (like the chickweed and dandelion) Bilateral symmetry: this refers to a flower that has a clear top and bottom or left and right; the petals are not all the same (like the violets) Monocot: a plant with one cotyledon. All you need to know is that the veins of the leaves are parallel to each other and the number of petals is always a multiple of three. The plantain and wild chives are great examples of this. Dicot: a plant with two cotyledons. The veins of the leaves are branching and the number of petals is always a multiple of 4 or 5. Most of the plants Andrew showed in this video are dicots. Also, here's a tip: if you want to forage for violets, please make sure that YOU ARE NOT MISTAKING THEM FOR BUTTERCUPS. Buttercups are very poisonous, and if you are not familiar with them then you can easily mistake them for violets (especially if the violets are yellow, which they often are). The easiest way to tell the difference is that buttercup flowers are radially symmetrical while the violet flowers are bilaterally symmetrical (they have two large petals on the top and three smaller ones on the bottom). To add onto the above, if you are just starting out with foraging, it is a good idea to stick with plants whose flowers are blooming. The flowers are often the most recognizable part of the plant, and they are the easiest to identify in most cases. Happy foraging!

Andrew is the Lawn Ranger

Please make more wild food videos! These are very high quality and informative. Dandelion and Garlic mustard are very tasty greens.

funny how he munches trough the lawn :D

Plz do more videos like this to promote caring about nature. This is so important that we change the way people view lawns and nature!!💗✌👏

I eat a lot of wild plants and weeds. They are real food for regular people. There are some techniques for getting the best plants -- look in the grass that's a little more tall, and look in shaded areas. Those plants have to grow fast to compete for light, and the soil has been shaded so it's more moist. Those plants are less stressed and taste a lot better, for a lot longer in the season. Out in a short-cut lawn is a tough, stressed place unless there's been a lot of rain and constant cloudiness. I like the narrowleaf plantain. When it's in good shape, it has a nice mushroom taste. But out in the direct sun like that, it's stressed and not at its best. Enjoy your weeds! They are so good! :D I'll take your challenge and show you what I have in my yard, from a walk tomorrow! One good salad, coming up! Elm leaves, black locust flowers, hawthorn leaves, spruce needles, and so much more!

Fried dandelion flowers, dipped in batter and salted are SO GOOD!

This information is so vital and wish it was taught more! I was born and raised in Hawaii and my father is from the northern part of Philippines. He’s Ilocano and there’s a running joke that Ilocanos are like goats because they eat any plant hahaha. There were so much amaranthus growing in our area my father use to use it in his dishes. He would wait till they flowered though and I loved eating the tips of the plant. I forget the name of it but there is somewhat of a soup with a few these “foragables” (is that a word?), especially amaranthus. He cooked it with taro stalks and root, and other veggies like squash flowers, and it would be an almost purple grayish soup. It had a nice tart too it, not sour, it was a savory flavor with a nice tart. It pairs amazingly with fried fish and of course rice! I miss these dishes and every time I visit home he cooks them!

Awesome video. I’m really interested in wild edibles. I’m with you on how pointless lawn care is sometimes. Unfortunately my wife doesn’t see it the same way!

I had to tell my HOA that clover is a perfectly acceptable ground cover and they could take their threats of fining me and placing a lein on my home and shove them up their @$$. 1000 thumbs up. Oh, and my HOA left me alone. It was a fairly terse 3 page letter I wrote in response. Great job Andrew!

2+yrs ago when I first saw you guys break out a heavy glass mason jar of fermented food while backpacking I knew you were the real deal. This is another great video. Thank You.

I LOVE MY WEED YARD! I have foraged dandelions, purselane, Wood sorrel, fake "strawberries" and always researching if something new in my yard is edible now! Weeds are needed for the butterflies and bees!

I love going around and collect my garden weeds and clean my garden and then boil them and make a salad put in it oil, salt and lemon and eat it with fish or chicken .YUMMY TRY IT .Im Greek and as a child my mum showed me which weeds you can eat .Once you are shown it's easy .

I love weeds. I love clover and really need to overseed my Yard with clover seeds.

Great video, thanks. I’ve turned my lawn into a feeding station for wildlife and we haven’t been disappointed.

You are coool! I do the same eating edible plants in yard except people act like im nuts here. I try to explain the benifits but to no avail.

So appreciate revealing the identity of the Purple Dead Nettle. Since moving to the PNW in January I've been trying to find the name of this adorably abundant plant especially in my grass. Keep up the flora feature of AA's awesome videos as it is a feature I love to see. Take Care!

Best video I’ve seen and agree 100%. I “weed” my garden with my vitamix in hand and drink wild green shots or make a smoothie everyday while learning the plants in my lawn. Thanks

As a Pagan I'm constantly striving to learn new things and this video is so awesome!!

The sorrel plant with the clover like leaves, are what I was referring to that we called rabbit grass, when we were trying edibles around the campus in Nashville.

Andrew I appreciate this video so much, I had a wonderful experience with my grandmother who taught me all the native plants where I grew up. I have since moved to the north east and I really appreciate this lesson to share with my sons. Thank you.

Love you man . Spred the weeds!!! I remember the time when I tried to get rid of my dendelions , finely gave up and start eating them. The best salad available. Now I blow the seeds oll over my garden . Fly little dendelions fly🌼🌼🌼🌼

I love the information of this video and really hope you make more like it. I would like to know how to better identify what is edible in my yard as well as out in nature. Great video 👍👏🎥 keep up the great work 😁❤️

what a healthy and wise way to look at lawns. I think I will put it into action, you are right Andrew.

It was a joy watching a video on wild edible and medicinal plants and realizing that you are familiar with all of them save one. Also St. John's wort Pokeweed Joe pye weed Yarrow Shepherds purse Elderberry Boneset Goldenrod Mullein Peppergrass Evening primrose Monarda Chicory Curly dock Queen Anne's lace

I need to revisit you guys trips. A few years ago I binged watched all your travels. Enjoyed every one

Yesssssss! I don't have a lawn to eat, but I love when you explain edible/medicinal plants! 😄

I found some wild chamomile around my house, made a nice tea with. Really calmed my nerves

I love when you teach us how to ID plants! I used plantain to treat a wasp sting a few years ago and it worked great. Thanks Professor Andrew :-)

Statement at the end...so true. You will help change the world

I was waiting for something like that from Andrew :)

I eat my yard. I have an acre and allow the back 1/3 acre to grow wild flowers and wild lettuce, plantain, stinging nettle and many others. I do not spray the trees or lawn: The butterflies and other insects love it, I just mulch in the fall. I want to expand my knowledge of the new volunteer wild plants coming up to see if they are edible- that's why I am here. Thanks!

I love it! I'm gona go look out back right now...my husband already thinks I'm nuts for laying in the grass without a blanket...wait till he sees me eat it. 🤣🤣

I could listen to you talk edible plants for hours... You should consider a podcast about it! Maybe an episode on each national parks with guest experts, etc...

Excellent, please do more of these from the various areas you guys visit

Andrew always blows my mind with his knowledge 🙌🏼

Man.. you know what, this was a beautiful video through and through. I wish I had half your knowledge about plants, trees and everything in between, so thank you for your constant 'updates' and reminders in the videos you guys make. I even liked the message, and I agree. I do like a really well cut lawn that is green and healthy, but I see the other side of the argument as well. I really do. Thanks again dude, you're awesome! Cheers from Norway. ^^

Thank You...I learned something from you...Yummy... I do not throw any poisons on my yard, I gather many dandelions, clover, plantains, ect... What I learned from you is about the different flowers you talked about...interesting...Thank You, and Be Well💙

Everytime I think I'm almost done binge watching this channel I get a new video at the top of my feed. I loved this! More plant vids!

Im so glad to see adventure archives making these videos about nature! its a breath of fresh air. keep them coming. and make more on mushrooms!

Thank you for the video! Can’t gain weight eating weeds. I’m just now learning about wild edibles this spring. I wish I’d known about this sooner.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I guess. Personally I like my wildflowers in my lawn, but that’s me. And anyone who spends their time and money differently might seem like they are wasting it to us-but that’s their choice. As far as health and practical matters, it’s significant to mention that one of the best ways to control the spread of ticks-and therefore disease spread by them-is not to let your lawn get too high.

Absolutely! You give a great alternative to green lawns. I'd love to see more homes with natural native plants. My grandparents used dandelions in their salads. As you mentioned, gobo (burdock) is a traditional Japanese vegetable that we enjoy especially at New Year. Now I know how to identify it! Thanks, Andrew! ^_^

I've learned a lot of cool stuff. Once again, great video Andrew🍃

This video is a perfect breakdown of how to deal with, aka gaslight, a pissed off neighbor who is “fed” up with staring at your unmowed lawn and comes over to say something about it

Thanks Andrew for the video. Knew couple of these we could eat, but just now learned the others. Stay safe and good adventures.

I use the dandelion leaves from my backyard in my green smoothies. The big juicy leaves are usually near sprinkler heads.

The flowers are also great to attract pollinators & birds 🦋Great video 🌟ThankU 🍀🌼🌸

Thank you so much! I recognized in my yard all but two of the plants you spoke about. Burdock grows wildly well in my side yard, too. Professor, well done.

We have most of these plants growing wild here in West Cork, Ireland too!! ^_^

1 min into this video and I am totally with you 100%. What a terrific and poignant video. Thank you.

Beautiful explanation. Thank you!

I was finding thel weeds outside in Guthrie Center Iowa as you were speaking in the video. Thanks.

Your reading my mind my friend. Excellent video it’s saved so I can review it over and over again.

Love everything about this channel. Thank you for this extremely interesting and important knowledge!

SOUL INSPIRATIONAL!!! 💕Definitely Educational!!! 💕 Direct And Right To The Point!!! 😄👍🏽 Love The I’ve Taste Testing!!! 👀👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾Thanks For Sharing!!!😎💕🙏🏾Blessings

Great video thank you for sharing this, I love foraging and especially love eating what grows randomly in my back yard, so I’m excited to learn new things to look for❣️❣️❣️❣️❣️

Great video. Lots of great info. Some new to me. My yard is brimming with these plants. I don't use any fertilizer or weed killer or pesticides. Looking forward to eating more wild foods esp. now that the food supply chain is starting to collapse!

My family loves to plant flowers and creating decorations for many things!

It’s also sad because a lot of communities HAVE to cut and maintain their lawns. The city forces it because it makes property values go up, for some reason. I agree with you though! One day when I own my own home I am going to have beautiful gardens for my yards. No grass haha just edible veggies, fruits and plants!

I feel very compelled to go out to my yard and look for all of these.

Loved this! I laughed when you, spit out/ away the super bitter plant after chewing it. Lol. :) I do eat from my lawn and appreciate the free densely-nutritiotious food! Thank you 😊....and thank you Creator, Lord Jesus.

Loving the bushcrafty knowledge vids. This particular video is extremely useful since it applies to stuff you can find right in your backyard, and not necessarily needing to head out into the wild to find and/or practice them. It would actually make more sense to cultivate herb gardens in your backyard than simply leaving them empty tho.

Absolutely LOVE your channel. I’m taking a mushroom & wild edibles class this summer. Amazed by your knowledge of plants.👍😊😍

additionally, weeds have long taproots that mine minerals up to their leaves,improving the soil when they fall off

Nice presentation. I like that you present an excellent point without shaming people! 2 thumbs up!👍👍

I was hoping that you would do vegetation videos!

How I wish I were confident enough to be able to identify and actually consume edible weeds! I've looked at pictures in books and watched videos like this one, but I'm still very nervous about it. The only things I have actually eaten are wild chives and dandelion greens. Oh yes, I also ate a bit of purslane that happened be inside the package of my bagged salad. (It was not included in the ingredient list so I assumed it was there by accident.) I went ahead and ate it anyway. Pleasantly mild flavor. I thought after doing that I would be courageous enough to eat the ones growing in my yard, but no.

Great job! I am a huge plant lover and have been collecting small samples of herbs/weeds, and any new plant or flower I find on my walks, to bring home. I add them to my growing collection of specimens that I replant, learn more about each type, and hopefully grow more of. This video is very helpful for me. I'm trying to learn as much as I can. Thank you! From one Nature lover to another! 🌿💚🍀

This was super enjoyable and realxing, thank you.

I planted a pollinator garden this year. In doing so I learned that the pollinators love all of the so called 'weeds' and in fact some butterflies will lay their eggs on them. Also, a lot of the lawn care products are what are killing the bees, etc.

This is an AWESOMEEEEE video. Love your information and especially your message at the end. Soooo TRUE. Thank you for this.

loved your video. Very informative and thank you for the close ups of the plants.

Awesome video as always....!!!

This is awesome! Now I can live out my Stardew Valley fantacy in my own backyard. Are there any books where I could learn more about this?

Thank you for this informative video!

Love this video. Very informative.

New sub.Ty Andrew.I'm just in past two years finding out about wildflowers/aka weeds.

Thanks so much. Sheep head sorrel is new to me and I think I can find it in my garden. I'm excited. :)

Glad to see somebody shares my feelings for edible plants instead of growing those damn inedible grass!

Great informative video! Thank you for sharing your knowledge :) I'm trying to learn more about wild edible plants, since I live in an apartment and have no place to keep a garden. So far this year I've made delicious pasta dishes using both stinging nettle and ground elder - both very common around where I live.

Loved this video Andrew! I’ve always really appreciated your passion for wild plants/edibles and find it fascinating when you talk about it in your trail videos so this was great! Like you, I wish more people would allow nature into their environment. Watching this inspired me to go and hunt round my own lawn and I came in with a selection that I now need to identify (I’m in the UK), any advice on how I can do this please? Thanks

Great info, makes sense!! Thank you for sharing

Love this!!

The government is mad at my lawn because a neighbor told on us I love the natural medicine in my lawn. I also grow food crops fruits but also love weeds for there natural medicine.

Very Good Andrew!👍

I agree with everything you pointed out in this video. I never sprayed my yard with pesticides or herbicides, and I had the most amazing garden with a lot of bees.

I love this video! Sharing on FB! -Mike

You are an amazing man. What an incredible inspiration. Thank you so much 🙏💚🙏

Great video!

Your videos are always nicely done. Much appreciated as I learned 2 new plants. Your pictures were very nicely done to show the plants. I would add that if you are eating the sorrels that you don’t want to eat too much as it has oxalic acid which gives the sourness. We called wood sorrel sour grass and ate everything but the roots. For my lawn I manicure front but keep larger area in back full of edibles. In addition I reduced the regular trees that were nice with some fruit trees that give much greater benefit. I can’t keep up with the figs. I want black cherry tree and hazelnut bush. Rather have a real fruit producing pear tree than a flowering only one.

Thank you for an educational video. I just recently started learning more about willing edible plants 😊

Great, seeing you eat the lawn