Becuase if you don't, that's pretty soon all you'll have in the garden...

What an odd question! Because I prefer to see a good mix of plants rather than just dandelions, rose bay willow, daisies, buttercups, nettles, bind weed, couch grass and other invasive weeds, which is all that we would have if we let our garden run wild.

Why wouldn't you, what's good about a weed?

That's the queerest question i've ever heard.

'Weeds' are the local wild plants and have a beauty all of their own. Because we are 'gardeners' we try to grow something different. The local wild plants are much more acclimatised to the growing conditions in the locality of the garden and, therefore, grow much more readily than the garden centre imports which we have paid money for. In order to prevent the wild plants smothering and killing the bought in plants we 'weed out' the wild plants.
Actually, what is so wrong with the colourful display of plants that Moon grower has just listed?

Well you may be happy for them to be in our garden Bulbaholic but I am not!

I was always told 'a weed is a plant growing in the wrong place or at the wrong time' so for me petunias are weeds as i do not like them over much. agree though what an odd quetion.

A load of weeds is not a garden - it's a meadow lol I think this is someone's homework ;-)

I agree.
Someone's cheating.

Oh dear, if it is homework, most of these answers won't be what the examiners are looking for - one crucial statement has not been made, which will be what they want to see... so if it is homework, you may just have to do a bit of research yourself, Stephanio

There is in thequestion some logic.If like we all do,we remove the strong,tall or invasive weeds and them leave a small patch if mini weeds,we are helping ourselves as this is what Mr fat-belly slug will eat first and will act as warning to the gardener that the fat-bellies are too close for comfort

I'm not sure if that's true Quintail....the plants that get eaten by slugs tend to be the ones with very tender growth - my delphiniums are in the firing line at the moment. I have noticed that every part of every garden has slugs, but you don't always see any slug damage. So what I recon happens is that the slugs eat the rotting vegetation underneath that is always damp because it's in the shade and close to the soil. I think the plants with tender grow, like my delphs, are probably similar to rotting vegetation if you're a slug and that's why they like them. The point I'm getting to is that I suspect the weeds are tough to eat and are not like the rotting stuff, so I think Mr Fat-Belly Slug will just slime his way over the weeds and will still eat the nice tender delphs and hostas on the other side!!

I would say tho that a covering of weeds is better than nothing at all, as it's important to protect the soil from the weather.

I agree Sid why would slug eat something tough like a dock when it could be munching on my hostas... a month from now most of the leaves will have holes in. Slug likes nice delicate things to chomp on... seedlings are a favourite.

Yes, we only notice slugs when we plant these tender suculent sort of plants and seedlings and things we've been mollycodling so they're all soft....but the slug population is there all year round. This is why I'm leery about enriching soil unless the plants really need it, as it makes the plants grow soft, which makes them more prone to slugs, amongst other things.

So Stephanieo have we helped you at all... I doubt it somehow.