WHAT is a "WEED?" - Time for CHANGE . . . 

I decided years ago that I have no weeds in my garden, they all grow exactly where I want them. They are all plants and have their place in the ecosystem. It takes some time to unlearn the Victorian obsession with control and tidiness.

Hi 👋 Nebraska USA here 😀 fun story, last weekend my 7 year old granddaughter and I took a walk. She picked a dandelion. I told her that was ok but don’t pick them all. She said… well it’s just a weed 😊 We talked about the importance of the dandelion and how they are the 1st food for the bees and butterflies. We talked about them not really being a weed because they are food for the tiny things that live in our world. She totally grasped that idea because later I heard her telling her big brother the very same thing 😁💖 Thank you for your videos. I very much I joy them ❤😊

absolutely agree with you! dandelions are always welcome in my urban multi-species lawn, but when they get in the flowerbeds, my god they’re beasts 😂 i once dug up a 4 foot long single dandelion root when i was planting up an herb bed!! i always wonder how we can best help to change people’s minds about “weeds” and lawns. people say they like to see wild nature down in the country, but most seem to believe that in residential areas the natural world must be heavily controlled and subdued, and any plant or animal that disobeys should be eradicated. i really don’t know how to approach a neighbour of mine who sprays systemic herbicide all along the public path right outside of our row of houses; I saw him do it once and was so speechless i couldn’t tell him to stop. the spray even killed some of my plants growing along my fence. I really wish shops wouldn’t sell weedkiller AT ALL, to be honest.

Thank you for championing our wildflowers and wildlife and giving us some great ideas of what to do in our gardens!

Yes, a constant struggle in our house to explain why I’ve left patches of forget me nots, dandelions, dead nettles. It’s so engrained in our psyche. My other issue is identifying the tiny germinating seedlings, I’ve decided just to leave them and see what they become. I’m keeping an eye on the grass verges along the road to see how often they are mown. At the moment we have dandelions and daisies, let’s hope they leave it at least for May.

I love the look of a field of dandelions. I think they're a beautiful flower. Unfortunately, it's been ingrained in people all their lives that they are undesirble.

Good luck with your RHS endeavor!! Totally agree & support the fact we need to change the prevailling langauge & mindset we have regarding our native plants!! I was literally walking in Wales today and had to take a moment to capture the Dandelions along the roadside all in their peak display 💛

Only this morning, I watched a pair of greenfinch and a small charm of goldfinch, really enjoying a feast of dandelion seeds in my garden. Joy!

I’m going for a no mow summer this year in both my front and back gardens. Very excited to see what grows!

I have come to an agreement with the dandelion. I allow it free reign in my front garden and the bumblebees and other insects are attracted to this early spring flower. The back garden is a dandelion free zone to allow for other smaller wild flowers a space in the lawn. Actually, buttercups get free reign in the back garden.

Dandelions have are loved in Asia where they are perceived as symbolising the Sun, Moon and Stars. A simple idea that changed my appreciation these underappreciated flowers. 🌄 🎑 🌠

Totally agree. These dandelions are wildflowers, and should be treated as such and not as weed. They play such an important role and source of food after the scarcity of winter for so many animals, from your pollinators, birds to larger wildlife. Thanks Joel for your tireless work in trying to push that message👍. I hope that you and Nikki are well and excited with the big date approaching!

Dandelions are magnificent aren't they Joel. Useful and beautiful. 👍😊. In these here parts the mowing regimes have eased off thankfully and the Dandelions are flourishing and plentiful for any pollinators out braving the rain and seed eaters. A sight to behold. I agree, no such thing as a "weed". All have a part to play in the grand scheme of things. All hail the Dandelion 🙏. Sadly Joel the manufacturers of the poisons hold too much sway and influence as in most areas of life. Nature is under attack sadly. Keep up the great work. Paul 😊

Great video:) Dandelions are great and I think the whole plant is edible (don't quote me there). Did have to remove the ones in the flowerbed with a small spade as they were swamping my other wildflowers. The ones in the lawn got to stay and they have been amazing:)

Driving around where I live there absolutely loads of dandelions everywhere, although I did see council mowers going around cutting sadly but still lots of uncut areas with lots of these wildflowers, our back gsrden has lots of these as well.

Not cutting mine period my neighbours have stopped talking to us but hey that’s their loss

I’ve always loved dandelions ❤ my tiny garden is bright yellow at the moment. But I always deadheaded them to cut down the spread to neighbours until 2 years ago when I witnessed the beautiful sight of a pair of birds (think they were finches) holding down a seed head and plucking the seeds out. Now I leave them ❤ but I must confess I do pull them from my teeny tiny veg patch 😉 Love your videos. 👍

As you advised last year, I'm cutting the grass in my back garden with a higher cut. The grass looks tidy, and I and the wildlife can still enjoy the abundant daisies and dandelions that the lawnmower blade miss. Also in a different area I have a no mow area for the whole of spring and summer, with just a path mowed through the middle and along the side of hedges. Looking absolutely lovely. In the front garden there will also be an area that I will stop mowing for the summer, as it looked so lovely last year. Thanks for all you advise.

Yes! Let's support native wildflowers. In Minnesota, dandelions (and creeping charlie) are invasive, so I'm okay with people removing them, but only if they replace those flowers with native wildflowers from our region. I can't believe it when people want to get rid of the native violets (Viola sororia and Viola canadensis). Similar to dandelions, they are early bloomers, super easy to grow, and great food for insects. Aside from that, they are absolutely adorable!

They are so beautiful!

Keep fighting the good fight Joel, I emailed my council today as they continually mow the long strips of grass along the sides of the roads which when left to their devices grow rich with dandelions. So frustrating to see them being destroyed for no good reason.

Hey Joel! Wow that really does look amazing, I bet it was humming with insects! I really think for those who are a little bit uptight about their lawns the way to go is to make wild patches and areas where you don't mow, they really do look like a feature and provide the best fodder for wildlife. The dandelions have been amazing this year and I hope that's down to gardeners leaving them alone and people telling the time with the "clocks" haha. Amazing the difference it makes to birds and insects. Really great video and great that so many people feel the same about these amazing flowers. Best wishes.

Nice one Joel, I'd say one of your most important videos yet 👍

I am lucky to live SW of France, lots of many bees, butterflies, insects including reptiles such as green and brown lizards in the garden because there are wild flowers nearby and also in my garden.

Our local road verges in the estate where I live was awash with dandelion and daisies last weekend. Sadly and unbelievably I saw that central Bedfordshire council saw fit to send their council workers out to mow it all 😢. None of this was in anyones way and and I can see no good reason to do this. It looked absolutely beautiful before it was decided to cut it all down. There would have been thousands of insects in there 😢

i used to be guilty of using far too much pest and weed control in my garden until i realised how much wildlife there was and how what i was doing could have impacted them, yes my garden isn't the pretiest , i weed by hand and let parts go wilder than i should but the results i get with seeing the bees nesting under my shed or in the regular nightly visits by several hedgehogs , and last year watching bats hunting insect above the garden make it all worth while ... it only an edge of town garden but what we do with it matters for us all and the wildlife that visits it ... agree totally and i'm stopping the use of "weed" as a way to define these plants and too look at them in a more beneficial way i would also love to "no mow" but with a large family dog trying to clean up after him in long grass is a no no ... but what i might try is a no mow corner and see how that goes

Another issue with lawns and the upper classes, it was a symbol of how much land and money they had that they could afford to waste land on growing grass which has no purpose whatsoever. Lower classes had to grow their own fruit and veg and dedicated all their land to it for their survival.

I live in the Pacific Northwest we have lots of hawks and eagles I love seeing these beautiful open fields they are so needed. thanks for this video!🦅🌲🌲

Lovely to hear! I've Been saying for years there is no such thing as "weeds", they are wild flowers. Just the other day I tried to search what grows well along side Dandelions, but every result was how to get rid of them :( Anyways I have a spectacular patch of Dandelions, Vetch, Lambs Lettuce, plantain, forget-me-nots and White Dead nettle at the moment that all seem to get along well..., can you tell I have a Tortoise buddy, hehe.

❤ the video. I’ve more discussion to have with my hubby. Still to buy some plants 🪴 for the front garden which is small with a lovely 😊 hedge.

In Florida we have bidens alba most people hate them but i have huge ones growing in pots the bees love them and the butterflies.

Bees need these plants as well as other so called weeds. As each new housing development appears more and more wildlife disappears. Gardens are no longer thought a part of these developments even the so called trees that are planted are dead within a year. Hate to think that in 20 years children will not know what wildlife is.

My yard almost looked like that, make a wish seed heads now. They've all been replaced with buttercups 😊

Great video thanks for sharing

That field is a thing of beauty. Their shaggy little heads and shade of yellow just makes me happy. 😊 I'm not sure about the rest of the country but in the South West I'm noticing more Brimstones than in previous years. We have several 'bumblebee runways' in Spring and Summer because I noticed while doing flower counts that different species grow in different parts of the garden. 😊

Lately I've been enjoying watching the Sparrows taking pecks at the Dandelion flower heads. Once you've seen that, you'll never want rid of them.

Dandy lions are yummy !!!!

I absolutely adore the magnificent Dandelion... Such a beautiful plant with so many health benefits. Thank you Joel! ..Brilliant video as always 🌱🌻💚

What a beautiful field 🥰 I have to say that round my way, things are slowly getting better. The council seem to have stopped spraying the grass verges and aren’t mowing as often as they used to. At the moment the verges are looking glorious, full of dandelions, daisies and celandines.

Good video. Re No Mow Summer I would say that the strip round the edges/middle etc should he encouraged as part of the lawn/meadow/verge management plan as wildlife needs that variety of height

Hi Joel fab vlog. I stopped mowing my lawn last year and am very happy to see this year I have wild flowers in it. Particularly Celandine, which I love and have now covered a large section of my lawn. I have a larger section of rough garden that is covered with Dandelion and I am letting them grow for a few reasons. Firstly because they are food for Bees and butterfly's. Secondly because they are a very beneficial food for me, flowers, leaves & roots are packed with goodness. And thirdly they are doing the work of breaking up the hard compacted clay soil on the slope, which means less work for me!! It truly is a win win situation to have plenty of Dandelions in a garden.

The dandelions and nettles are so important for the bees and insects this time of year. I leave them around my plot for this reason as I want to attract more wildlife.

I have really enjoyed it, I never saw a field of dandelions like this before. In Dalat we had some but not as much as that. As an adult I still like to blow them 😁

I’ve never seen a grass meadow with so many Dandelions growing on it 😮 Thanks for the video Joel 😉

A 'weed' is simply a plant growing in a spot that wasn't your choice! TBH I do struggle with self-seeders as I have acute OCD and I have to REALLY fight to ignore them ( not always successfully I must say ).

Really looking forward to the RHS video, that would be amazing if you could change their thinking towards weed killer and insecticides 🐝

Magnificent! 👏👏👏💛 love them!

Is it just me but I don't remember the last time I saw a buttercup?

Sending email now, although I have noticed they're leaving verges more these days here in Middlesex. Hopefully old fashioned views will disappear soon for everyone's sake 🌍

I love your videos. Learning more every time. Three of my neighbours have changed their lawns to fake grass. Do you have any info I can give them and more importantly the other neighbours. To prevent this trend spreading?

I constantly see on my school bus council's mowing verges just as all the wildflowers are coming up normally on one there are red clover napweed and a family of voles lived there last year but sadly this year it has already been mown

Thank you so much for the videos and letting us understand lots of wonderful things that we can do to help our beautiful Planet God Bless you 🐶🐱🐭🐰🦊🐔🐧🐦‍⬛🦆🪿🐥🐣🦉🦇🪱🐝🦋🐞🐜🦗🦟🪳🪲🪰🕷️🕸️🦂🐢🐙🦎🐬🐟🐳🐋🦧🦍🦣🐘🦏🐄🐑🐏🐖🫏🦮🐈🦌🪽🐓🦃🦤🦚🐇🦜🦢🦨🦡🦫🦦🦔🐁🦥🦡🐾🌲🪵🌳🍃☘️🎍🐚🍄💐🌹🌼🪻🌼🌞🌕🌍❤️🙏

I love dandelions but the council and most people take them as a sign to start mowing the less we have different plants and flowers than slightly brown grass

it all depends on how you view and deal with them

When I was at horticultural college, our teachers said that weeds were flowers that were simply in the wrong place, that there was nothing 'bad' about any of our native plant species. It was just a matter of attitude. I'm glad to say that in 'most' of the horticultural establishments where I worked (starting from nearly 40 years ago), there were wild areas included in the grounds. Some were really quite extensive too. One of the best was in a park in the middle of a built-up Essex town - where we were privileged to have Kingfishers. So it's definitely the public that needs to be convinced that they don't have to be so regimented and obsessively clean and tidy about their gardens. The RHS, unfortunately, does need to include themselves in this re-education. They probably give space to chemical products because the likes of Monsanto 'pay' them very good money to keep advertising them. But also, garden centres and supermarkets should be doing more to promote wild flowers on their shelves. Precious few do more than offer boxes of wild flower seed... I'm actually trying to remember when I last saw wild flowers for sale and all I can think of is pots of Snowdrops (likely hybrids anyway) and packets of dried up Lily of the Valley roots.

Hamari Yahi Khushi Hoti Hai Sab bahan bhaiyon Ka Sath De aur Aap Ki Kashish diya karo mere bahan bhaiyon Katre Katre Se Dariya banta hai miljul kar Chalte Jaenge to bahut jaldi Kamyab Ho jaenge

I’ve begun to let dandelions have their place in my garden and I’ve not seen any issues so far but, is speedwell beneficial to any insects at all as one of my border is full of it!

I remember the old saying about the dandelion if you pick them you will wet the bed😂😂😂😂

i was inb and q the other day and was shocked that all the week killer has dandelions on there saying it kills them. why dont people want them in the grass? we have sown wild flower seeds in our grass so we ger loads of flowers! lol

Someone noted how successful the Geum weed was & developed different coloured plants for sale, there's a market for you, different coloured Dandelions.

👏🏽

My Dandelions are staying.

Hello... I'm from India. Number of HOUSE SPARROWS are declining... Give us some solutions to bring them back

Another one I can't hear sound on, anyone else? I get the intro music then silence.

Dandelions are not weeds. My desert turtles thrive on a diet of them and Hibiscus blossoms.

What perplexes me, is several videos recently from people promoting wildflower planting etc, but telling their followers to make sure they pull out dandelions. 🤦🏻‍♀️

We need to get away from these old wives tales that calls them wet the beds as when I was a kid many years ago it puts them in a bad light I now look forward to seeing them everywhere

Of course, there is no money in not selling glyphosate, hence RHS will be reluctant to send out the message that will save our health and eco system. My problem is with local council spraying along our fence line on the front, side and back garden, doing so regardless of the wind and killing my plants and health of soil. I try to get one step ahead by "weeding" and hoeing their assigned borders, but they still insist on spraying. And I have spoken to the workers, but the argue their case - which is stupidity. We all debate the plight of bees, but we are killing them with glyphosate and taking away a source of food. I used a selective weed killer for grass weeds, in particular clover, for a golfing putting green. The bees love clover. The next day showed a massacre of bees on the lawn. Its dangerous for our health and lethal to insects.

I blew the seeds all around my yard garden last year. It’s a very cheery place now. To me rhododendrons are weeds. I really don’t like them. As for the RHS I joined a few years ago and then cancelled after seeing their despicable ads for poisons for gardens. I have many slugs, snails, wood bugs, centipedes and beautiful green flies (blow flies)? They queue up to get in the food waste bin. Doing their magnificent job.

Actually, "woke" would fit much better those people who comment and act on the fact that insects deserve our full protection in stead of many other so called "woke" topics in my view. You are very woke Joel !