Everyone knows this: After a warm spring rain, the flower bed turns green almost overnight. But how do you recognize which plant has opened the cotyledons and whether it is an ornamental plant or an unwanted weed? In this article, you will learn how to reliably tell the difference using the example of some plants.
Although ground elder is a weed, it is very popular with insects and is also edible for humans
Identify weeds
In order to tackle weeds early and sustainably, you should be able to reliably identify the plants and their preferred location. The visible features differ in terms of:
- leaf shape (leaf blade),
- Blossom,
- Root,
- heyday,
- growth height,
- Location.
Train your eye by looking closely at the plants growing in your garden. Also pay attention to where they prefer to thrive.
Wild herb books or the Internet help with the identification. There are now a few apps for smartphones that help you identify wild plants.
Which weeds settle very often?
There are some weed plants that can be found in almost every garden. This includes the goutweed, the above characteristics of which we have listed in the table below:
| characteristic | description |
|---|---|
| location | Shady, prefers moist, nitrogenous soil. Giersch prefers to thrive under trees, but also spreads in beds. |
| leaf shape | Very distinctive. Leaves are ovate, serrated, and hairy underneath. They are brightly colored medium green. The leaf blade is divided into three pinnate leaves. |
| blossom | Giersch blooms from May to September. The weed forms ten to twenty small umbels per inflorescence. These are pure white to slightly reddish in color. |
| growth height | 30 to 100 centimeters |
The common couch grass is also one of the very stubborn weeds that many gardeners struggle with:
| characteristic | description |
|---|---|
| location | Prefers nitrogenous soils and inhabits meadows and roadsides as well as open bed areas. |
| leaf shape | Long, narrow, green foliage leaves that grow between five and a foot long. |
| blossom | From June to August, couch grass develops spikes that are five to twenty centimeters long. |
| growth height | 50 to 150 centimeters |
These characteristics can also be used to identify other weeds such as dandelion, thistle or the also very stubborn bindweed, a creeper. If you also look at the appearance of the ornamental and useful plants you have sown, you will quickly learn to distinguish between wild plants and the desired green.
tips
Some weeds like groundweed are edible and even downright tasty. That's why they are far too good to end up in the organic waste bin or on the compost after weeding.