Are they Really weeds?

My Garden is absolutely full of weeds and do I care?  NO!!

Bronze Fennel, Verbena boniarensis and Nasturtiums which have seeded themselves in front of my jaggedy front fence. I have no idea how they got there, but I'm leaving them there. Where would the front fence be without them.

Even though the Bronze Fennel seems so au fait with the rusty gate, I might just cull it out a little for next year, as it can be a bit of a thug and I don't want it swamping the Verbena and Nasturtiums

 I like certain weeds, probably those that are on the border between weeds and non-weeds because they complement my 'normal' plants so well, and they are easy enough to manage in my small garden.  I cull out the seedlings which come up in spring in inconvenient places, and what is left just simply grows up with the perennials until they are standing tall in high summer amongst everything else, lending a fulsomeness and textural interest to the garden and sometimes colour.   Although I do the main culling out of weedling/seedlings in spring, it actually goes on all season, because as they grow, if they start to take over from other plants drooping over and smothering the favourites later on in the season - out they come.  Sometimes when the Orach can get so tall it becomes unwieldy leaning over other treasures, I often just trim the top out of it, as the rest of the 'weed' is usually the shape I want to fit in with the other plants.   Just a little bit of judicious shaping and perhaps culling is all it needs.  Even a weed can benefit from a prune!!

These are my treasured weeds!
Bronze Fennel - Foeniculum vulgare purpureum
Red Orach - Atriplex hortensis rubra
Verbena boniarensis
Queen Annes Lace - Anthriscus sylvestris
Nasturtiums
Nicotiana sylvestris

Atriplex hortensis rubra - such a scholarly name for a weed - otherwise known as Red Orach or red spinach when it is young but I think it is far too lovely to eat. It's a weed because it seeds everywhere in spring, but is easy to haul out in great tufts or even better forked back into the earth where it can rot away gently making it's own compost. The foliage is such a beautiful colour that I could never be without it to bounce my other plants off. See how it takes centre stage in this photo growing so tall by mid-summer and blending so well with the grasses and other plants as it forms it's attractive pinkish red seedheads.

Nicotiana sylvestris or tobacco plant is tall and stately with it's white spikes of long bell flowers, and heady perfume filling the night. It is sought after overseas but here it will tuck itself in, sending up it's tall elegant spikes anywhere, even under shrubs with it's large soft felty leaves taking over.

Although I know my weedy beauties can be invasive or even plague-like, I appreciate them because they come back in abundance every year like old friends, and in a small garden it is no problem to cull these marauders out in spring.  Owners of large gardens may not feel the same way!!  
​With these 'weeds' in my garden I look forward to late summer when they have grown tall finding their way up to the light  between the perennials in the most fetching way.  This, when they are at their best either flowering or setting seed.   

Should I really call Queen Annes Lace a weed, because it can be bought in punnets at garden centres. But it does seed and come up everywhere in my garden in spring which I love. I would never have to buy it!! Even though seedlings come up in my robust orange front garden, from the compost I spread in winter, I treat these with disdain as I do with the weedy weeds and pull them out! I only allow it to survive in the back borders where its white laciness can be appreciated.

 

I allow Queen Annes Lace weedling seedlings to survive in my back garden, as their delicate form looks good with the pinks and burgundys. This year I let the seedlings near the edge of the path be, and in this pic you can see the result - these lovely tall lacy things leaning so fetchingly over the path, which I must part to get to the shed

Earlier this season I was not so vigilant about thinning out the weeds in the spring. Usually I clear the seedlings away from the edges of the borders so they do not block pathways, but this year I left them just for fun.  And it has been fun - they lean over the pathways most fetchingly.  So much so that I need to part a space between the gorgeous things to weave my way down the path to the shed.  And they feel so nice brushing against my face and body, and most importantly slow my journey down the garden path and in the process I notice more of what is what is going on around me in the garden. 
​So it is all a very sensuous business, and isn't that what gardening is all about - the senses?  Sight , sound, smell and touch!   Today, after a most welcome shower of rain overnight - the first for 2 months - these 'weeds' are leaning even more heavily over the path because they are bowed down with raindrops which means getting down to the shed is a very damp business today.  A lovely cooling wet sensation after the dry heat of the last few weeks.