They quickly colonise places where something has changed the landscape. The landscape change is usually done by conventional farming methods suc
h as digging but it could be from a catastrophe such as flood 0r landslip. The weeds are well adapted to a short life and are highly re-productive with little dependence on the quality of the soil or water supply. Before you remove the weeds have a succession plan. Permaculture deals in modelling systems and seeing what the surrounding landscape has as a plan. In a rainforest the succession plan involves plants that are happy to start in deep shade and will suddenly rise to the occasion when a mature tree falls.
What Weeds Are Good At
Weeds are excellent adapters. They can mine the on-site resources better than most other plants. Weeds will mine minerals, sop up excess nutrients on a site and cover bare ground which builds organic matter in the soil. If you remove a weed, you need to plant something almost just as strong or have a plan to nurture the next plant. There are easy ways to nurture plants, dig swales to bring water to them, cover the surrounding soil with mulch and build a tent of leafless branches to protect plants from too much sun, frost or animal damage and keep a regularly watch on young plantings.
Plan For A Time After The Weeds
When we remove a weed and send it away we are losing minerals and fertility from our site. If we slash a weed before it goes to seed we get the benefit of the mineral rich organic matter as mulch. When we do nothing and let weeds and non-edibles rule our site we miss out on the opportunity of having a balanced diet of fresh food and herbs. Enjoy outsmarting a weed and implement a natural succession plan for a fruitful forest. Living mulch is ideal to stop future weed invasion especially if it is edible.