Connie, Usually vegetable plant pests are fairly picky on what they feed on. I think the weeds would do more harm than any slight possibility of them helping deter bugs.

Well now, another highly debatable topic! Oh boy! :) I think weeding, like so many other things, is best practiced with discretion. I guess it depends on the weed, where in the garden it is, whether it has any beneficial uses, and your own personal aesthetic. Some weeds are highly noxious, like bindweed, kudzu, dodder, etc. and will choke out your plants pretty quickly. Others are smaller and less vigorous and have beneficial uses like Lamb's Quarters, dandelion, chickweed. Others provide good food and cover for benefical insects (queen anne's lace, goldenrod, daisy) others provide a catch crop for bad insects (possibly one of the ones you removed?) and still others make nice flowers, like violets. Oh, others can be used as cover crops like crown vetch and clover to add nitrogen to the soil and act as a "living mulch" in wide paths, Or used to prevent erosion, but that's a little more deliberate than what you're talking about. So, do you want to yank all of the weeds out of your garden? Well, that's really up to you! But you're right, they are not all bad all the time. I leave many in a strip around the garden to provide some cover for beneficials, and as long as they aren't crowding my plants too closely, I leave some of the more tasty ones to act as another crop in the garden! But if they are taking over the onion patch, out they come! Cheers!

Sunni
(Goes off humming "It's my garden, I'll weed if I want to, weed if I want to...")

I agree with sunnibel7 and cassieinmass. I like to leave a couple "weed patches" in my garden, which I deadhead if I have a chance, to maintain a healthy predator and pollinator population and to keep a few "distraction crops" around. The only must-do when it comes to weeding is that you can't let weeds shade your plants, since the sun is their energy source.

Some pests are very plant specific, but many others aren't.

Thanks everyone for your help. I have another question, How do I find out what kind of week I have? Do I just search the internet until I find something that looks right? Thanks again, you have been very helpful.

Clover in my yard helps keep the bunnies fed and away from my food

Take pics of them and post them, peapod. Someone will know what they are.

Clover is with out a doubt the most abundant weed in my garden. I am not an aggressive weeder. I just don't see the point in weeding unless I feel my vegetables are being choked off. Along the sections of my garden that meet the house I have an abundance of weeds. Most of them are clover. I never knew clover could actually be good for the soil. I am happy that it is my number one weed. (Go Clover!???)

Many good points have already been said, and I add my comments.
If the weeds are the size of your plants(at any stage) and grow as tall and fast and have spreading habit and develop deep roots, I pull them out untill my plants take off and over. From there on most small size weeds are not very harmful and some can cover the ground. Some examples:

1- No weed should be tolerated in the herb garden, no matter how small.

2- No weeds that can produce seeds, should be tolerated,
like pepper grass.

3- No weeds that spread and grow deep roots,should be tolerated. They take away nutrients from your plants.

Right now that my tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, corns are established, I do not worry much about weeding. But I still weed my chives, parsley,and other herbs beds.

I hav found out that it is most efficient way to pull/hoe the weeds when they are tiny than to let them grow big. It pays off if you do not allow self-seeding weeds to grow.
If you practise this vigilantly this year, you will have much less weeds next year. Also watch for such weeds(seeders) in the vicinity (outside) your garden.Dont let them to grow seeds.

I absolutely have to agree about not allowing any weeds in the herb garden. This year I had to replant my herb garden because the weeds beat the herbs to germination.

The second time around I planted all the herb seeds in starter cups. While I was hardening up my herbs, I made sure to pull every single weed I saw. After I got the weeds under control, one cilantro plant actually sprouted up from my first attempt at planting. Now my little herb garden is very successful. Just yesterday I enjoyed some fresh basil cooked in with my chicken.

Many good points have already been said, and I add my comments.
If the weeds are the size of your plants(at any stage) and grow as tall and fast and have spreading habit and develop deep roots, I pull them out untill my plants take off and over. From there on most small size weeds are not very harmful and some can cover the ground. Some examples:

1- No weed should be tolerated in the herb garden, no matter how small.

2- No weeds that can produce seeds, should be tolerated,
like pepper grass.

3- No weeds that spread and grow deep roots,should be tolerated. They take away nutrients from your plants.

Right now that my tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, corns are established, I do not worry much about weeding. But I still weed my chives, parsley,and other herbs beds.

I hav found out that it is most efficient way to pull/hoe the weeds when they are tiny than to let them grow big. It pays off if you do not allow self-seeding weeds to grow.
If you practise this vigilantly this year, you will have much less weeds next year. Also watch for such weeds(seeders) in the vicinity (outside) your garden.Dont let them to grow seeds.

It really depends on what you're growing and what kind of yield you want.

Weeds will compete with the amount of sun your main crop gets, the root space, the available nutrients/water, and in some cases be a pest to the gardener (some nettles, for instance).

If you're growing a low-nutrient-hog bean in a place that gets a good amount of sun/water in a pole-bean-like fashion...then weeds aren't that important. If you're growing bush beans then weeding is more important. If you're growing a water/nutrient loving plant like a tomato or anything from seed/seedlings then it's even more important. In any of these cases weeding will improve almost all of these plants, though.

Really depends on the crop, primarily. Germinating carrot seed cannot compete with weeds; seed-started onions compete very poorly (but walking onions have little trouble). Tomatoes and potatoes tend to out-grow weeds easily. Generally speaking, direct-seeded crops need weed control. As others have said, all crops will produce more if kept weed-free.

However, weeds can certainly be used as a cover to enrich soil and increase bio-diversity. I try not to have them overwhelming the crops.

One VERY good argument for keeping weeds it is "birth control" -- remember, ONE weed this year can make hundreds or thousands NEXT year, especially those types that spread by seeds. I've made that mistake myself, saying a weed is interesting, etc. Heck, a couple of plants, garlic mustard and wild impatiens/touch-me-nots I actually planted intentionally in my yard because I thought they would be useful. I've regretted it for many years now, and rigorously pull them out before they can seed. STILL coming up every year.

I find weeding to be 100% necessary. As nc-crn mentions, weeds compete with your vegetables. At times I've let weeds get thick in my garden. I've hurt my back and been unable to weed or I've been lazy. When I don't weed the garden does not do as well and plants can be completely overgrown. The following year it is very difficult to get the garden ready to plant if you let weeds go.
The best practice here is to mulch everything with IRT Plastic or hay, straw, leaves grass clippings and cardboard and the like. Mulching has almost completely eliminated the need to weed my garden this year.

Hardly any weeds:
{{gwi:65530}}

Jon

Below is an interesting link on weeds.
For the most part I weed diligently in the garden. Weeds have their place though...just not here and now in my garden.
A few yers ago I was up at my daughter's place in NW Indiana. I went out to check [and weed] her watermelons that I had set out. There were some huge pig weeds growing right with the melons...close to the main part. Strange though, the melons were extra large. One Tendergold was 40 pounds with another good sized one on the plant....and the Tiger Babys were tigers rather than babies!! Yes, it was good soil but I had to wonder how things were extra good with those huge pig weeds.

Anyway, this year I am letting some large amaranth [pig weed] grow in a couple or so watermelon hills.

Here is a link that might be useful: Weeds!

Your question is insightful. The short answer is no, weeding is not absolutely necessary. Nature does not create weeds, only man's perspective. Depending on your situation, you will handle each type of plant in your yard differently. Mainly, if the other plants you didn't plant are blocking sunlight, trim them back. Fast growing vines might possibly have to be removed. In nature, many plants live in the same space and thrive while sharing nutrients and water and feeding off each other in symbiotic ways we don't understand. Ancient cultures understood even though they were supposedly far less advanced than modern civilized societies. Trust those spiritual instincts that are trying to strengthen your connection to nature that caused you to phrase your question the way you did.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gardening on Writer's Whirlpool

I've also been wondering about this for some time now. I live in South Africa and have seen locusts feeding on the weeds that grow in and around my vegetable patches which is surely a good thing as they also are quite happy to munch on my leafy greens. What I do is I will weed directly beneath and around my veggies and by and large let the weeds on the periphery do their thing. They also double up as a continuous supply of mulch, which I will often strip the weeds of above ground material allowing them to resprout. Conventional wisdom says weeds are always bad, but so many conventional gardening practices are inherently unsustainable. I think there is also this very human desire for complete control over their garden space, which I think is the wrong attitude to have. I prefer to focus on maintaining a healthy soil with a regular input of organic matter. Rather than declaring war on natural world. A war you will always lose.

Plants, whatever they are, competing with your vegetables for sun, nutrients and water are going to cause a problem. However, many untraditional vegetable garden plants have benefits to the garden, such as attracting pollinators, pulling nutrients up into the upper part of the soil, attracting predator insects, and positive root zone interactions. Also herbs with strong smells confuse some pests in finding your plants, although only slightly. So it's a case of knowing your vegetables and then knowing your good neighbor plants. Permaculture is built on these principles . . . I'd start by finding and following permaculture blogs or web sites to learn about the good neighbor plants. I weed and keep weeds down, but I don't obsess about it. Even "good" plants can get out of control, anything in the mint family is a classic example . . . I planted tansy for pollinators and insect control and it fast took over various areas . . . I use corn gluten around my plants once the seeds get started and off to a healthy pace, this keeps weeds down from right next to the plants . . . I'm more casual about some of the outer, wilder areas. So depends on your space. In a small limited space you have to be ruthless about the competition.

Where I lived until a few years ago, was horse country. The best sun for our garden was where the wind blew the weeds right into our garden!

I made the mistake of not covering the soil ONE year! After that, I used cardboard or even weed cloth in between plants to keep the weeds down!

I always pulled up the cardboard/weed cloth to add compost and whatever else was required.

I now live in town with a smaller garden that requires very little weeding. heavy mulch.