Sacred Weeds: Reclaiming the Plants We Were Taught to Pull

What if weeds aren't weeds at all?

What if they're the land's own diagnostic report — telling you exactly what your soil needs and how to heal it?

In this episode of Old Ways, New Days, we go deep:

✨ What every common weed is actually telling you about your soil

✨ Natural amendments to address each soil condition (no chemicals needed)

✨ The sacred history of dandelion, plantain, lamb's quarters, nettle, and clover

✨ The Anglo-Saxon Nine Herbs Charm and the magic of liminal plants

✨ A soil reading practice drawn from ancestral land wisdom

✨ A guided meditation from the weed's eye view

✨ A simple outdoor ritual for learning the language of the land

This isn't about aesthetic gardens.

This is about learning to read the earth.

The weed you pulled last Saturday?

It was trying to tell you something.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

You've seen them before, pushing through sidewalk cracks with a quiet, stubborn insistence, spreading across lands in rosettes and runners, showing up uninvited in carefully tended gardens again and again, no matter how many times you pull them. They're called weeds. Pulled, sprayed, discarded, cursed at on Saturday mornings with a coffee cup going cold. But what if we've been taught to see them all wrong? What if the plants we fight the hardest are the ones trying most to reach us? Because long before Medicare lawns existed, before chemical herbicides, before the post-war obsession with the perfect grass carpet, these plants had names. Ancient names, sacred names. Names spoken by healers, midwives, cutting folk, hedge witches, and farmers who knew that the boundary between medicine and food and magic was not a boundary at all. They fed people through famine, they healed people when no physician came, they sustained entire communities through seasons when cultivated crops failed. And now we spray them with poison. Today we're reclaiming these plants, the ones dismissed or as unwanted, unworthy in the way and in the way, and remembering them as something else entirely sacred. Welcome, witches, pagans, heathens, spiritualists, and anyone interested in living sustainably.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

This is Old Ways, New Days, where the old ways meet the good dirt. I'm Kayla. And I'm Nel. And each week we explore the sacred art of living close to the land. From compost to covens, chickens to charms, we're reclaiming self-sufficiency, seasonal living, and ancestral wisdom.

SPEAKER_02 1:48

Whether you're stirring your cauldron or your soup pot, this is a space for wild-hearted folk walking the homesteading path with intention, magic, and muddy boots. Yeah, pull that kit hair out of your food. I know.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Really good food.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

Don't mind us, we're we're eating dinner while we record. So you might hear a little bowl scrape here and there. And some sniffing because it's some spicy Indian food that I made.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

Well, it's spicy for her, not for me.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

I know. But the fiance likes the spice, so yeah, he's like he's determined to inoculate me with with spiciness. Little bits at a time. But I made it, so it's my own fault. Yep. So we're gonna talk about weeds today. Weeds. And not marijuana weed. Dang, I know.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

And funny that you bring this up because um one of the listeners actually reached out to me and asked how she can get rid of some because she wants to um put more wildflowers in her yard, and she was wondering what kind of wildflowers to use, and how to kind of de-escalate all the weeds in her backyard. Ooh. So, if you're listening, this one's for you in a way.

SPEAKER_02 3:49

In a way, yes. I mean, we can at least tell you what to do with the weeds um that are heading. Yeah, that are beneficial to you. Yeah, I mean, we were out this afternoon looking at all the things that are popping up out of the earth, and uh my fiance picked up one because he he loves smelling, like crushing the leaves and then smelling them. And of course, I all the labels vanished, so I don't know what's what in the new garden anymore, and so until they start coming up. And we have a ton of creeping Charlie, which I am pulling, but it is in the mint family, which is why it is so invasive, but it does not have a mint smell.

SPEAKER_00 4:31

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 4:32

And so something that he that is in the yard out of my water. Something that is in the yard, he picked a leaf and crushed it and smelled it and go, and it was the most fabulous mint smell. So I think I planted some wild native mint. Either that or it's bee balm. Could be. But yeah, there are there are tons of resources for what plants are native to your locale, at least in the United States. I would assume other countries are probably close or you know on top of that as well.

SPEAKER_01 5:11

Yep. And a good and this is what I told her today was a good reminder. Um, when you're first starting out and you're just doing like a sprinkle of seeds in your backyard, sprinkle perennials and annuals back there. Especially for your first one, first year, yeah. Because it'll help your perennials come back because that ground was already worked up. So, shall we get started? Let's do it! So the word weed is not scientific, it does not appear in botanical Latin. It describes no species, no genus, no family. It describes a judgment. A weed is simply a plant growing where someone doesn't want it. That's it. Which means the label says more about human preference, cultural conditioning, and agricultural economics than it says about the plant itself.

SPEAKER_02 6:16

To understand why we hate weeds, we have to understand why we love lawns. The obsession with grass monoculture, the uniform weed-free emerald carpet, is largely a post-World War II American phenomenon, shaped by suburban expansion, the rise of chemical companies repurposing wartime nitrogen production into synthetic fertilizers, and a cultural narrative that equated a good lawn with a good family. Before that, European estates used grass as a status symbol. Only the wealthy could afford land that produced nothing. To have grass was to prove you didn't need to grow food. That aesthetic got democratized after the war, and with it came an entirely new relationship to the land. One of control, one of performance, one in which any plant not selected by the homeowner became the enemy.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

What are weeds actually? Many so-called weeds are highly nutritious, often more so than cultivated vegetables. Deeply resilient, evolved more millennia than to survive harsh conditions, ecologically essential, feeding insects, birds, and soil organisms, and medicinally potent, carrying compounds that humans have used therapeutically for thousands of years. They are in the truest sense pioneer species. When land is disturbed by construction, by compaction, by erosion, by fire, these plants are first to return. They break hardened ground with their roots, they pull up minerals from deep in the subsoil, they attract the pollinators and insects that allow other plants to follow. They do not invade, they heal, and yet we call them a problem.

SPEAKER_02 8:20

What weeds tell you about your soil, pretty much everything. So here is where foraging, homesteading, and ancestral earth wisdom made the science of ecology. Every weed is a messenger. Before you we I think my lips are swallowing. Before you reach for a hoe or a spray bottle, ask, why is this plant here? Because the answer will tell you everything that you're everything about your soil. Hmm. Because the answer will tell you everything about what your soil needs, and often what amendment will fix the problem more permanently than pulling ever will. The old herbalists spoke of the doctrine of signatures, the idea that a plant's appearance hints at its purpose. Modern ecological science offers a parallel. The presence of certain plants is a signature of certain soil conditions. This is called indicator plant science, and it has been practiced by farmers, peasants, and land stewards for centuries before it was formalized by researchers like William Albrecht and Rudolf Steiner. Let's walk through the most common quote-unquote problem plants and what they're actually telling you.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

First, we're going to start off with the dandelion. What it signals. Dandelion's famous deep tapra, which can reach 10 to 15 inches into the earth, is nature's own broad fork. It appears most prolifically in compacted, hard, or clay-heavy soil that has become anaberobic, which means low in oxygen. The tapra breaks up compaction. It pulls calcium, iron, potassium, and copper from the subsoil and deposits them in its leaves, effectively mining the deep earth and making those minerals available at the surface when the leaves die back. What your soil likely lacks? Calcium. Check with a soil test, often a sign of low pH, acidic soil. Aeration and drainage, biological activity in the topsoil. Natural amendments. Aerate the soil mechanically or with a broad fork. Add garden lime or wood ash to raise pH and increase calcium availability. Incorporate compost to feed soil biology and improve structure. Plant deep rooted cover crops like tillage radish or crimson clover to continue the aeration work. If you must address dandelion, eat it, then amend. A sacred note in the old Gaelic tradition, the dandelion was called Bernard Brid Bride, the notched plant of Bride, Brigand. It was gathered at in bulk the first day of spring and considered one of the sacred plants of the returning light. Too bad dandelions don't grow that time of year here. No, they don't.

SPEAKER_02 11:40

But they do grow well. Yeah. All summer long. Plantain is our next quote unquote weed. Plantain is the universal companion of human disturbance. There's that word again. The Hondasi. Yeah, the haun howdenosuni Iroquois called it white man's foot because it appeared wherever European settlers walked. It thrives in compacted, heavily trafficked soil, especially pathways, driveways, and hardpan areas. It signals extreme soil compaction, low oxygen in the root zone, disturbed or heavily trafficked areas, often acidic soil with poor drainage. What your soil likely lacks, organic matter, beneficial soil fauna like earthworms and beetles, drainage and aeration. How to naturally amend this? Mulch heavily. Three to four inches of wood chips, mulch suppresses plantain while feeding soil biology. Add compost, tea, or worm castings to reintroduce microbial life. Plant white clover as a living mulch. It fixes nitrogen and crowds up plantain with a more welcome ground cover. For pathways, consider gravel, stepping stones, or time as a walkable ground cover alternative. Your sacred note for plantain? It appears in the Nine Herbs Charm, one of the oldest surviving Anglo-Saxon magical texts, circa 10th century current era. It is called Bagrad or Waybroad. Way Waybrod. Waybroad. The plant of the road and is involved invoked alongside Wodin himself as one of the nine sacred healing plants. It is also edible.

SPEAKER_01 13:34

Now we're going to talk about lamb's quarters. What it signals. Lamb's lamb's quarters, also called fat hen or goose foot, appears in nitrogen-rich disturbed soil, particularly near compost piles, old manure heaps, garden beds, and areas where organic matter has been dumped or turned. I knew that was coming. Paradoxically, it also appears in recently tiled tilled it also re appears in recently tilled soil where the nitrogen cycle has been disrupted. It is one of the fastest growing leafy annuals on Earth and it acts as a nitrogen stabilizer, pulling excess nitrogen into its biomass before it can be leached from the soil by rain. What your soil is telling you? High organic matter, recent disturbance, possibly nitrogen excess or rapid nitrogen cycling. Often signals good fertile soil. Lamb's quarters is a sign of promise, not poverty. The natural amendments, if lambs quarters is abundant, harvest it heavily. It is one of the most nutritious leafy greens in the world. Use it as a chop and drop mulch. Cut it and leave it in places to return its gathered nutrition nitrogen to the soil. Plant buckwheat as a cover crop to stabilize nitrogen and smother future growth. Add mycorallized inoculant to establish fungal networks that slow nutrient leaching. In a sacred note, in folk traditions across Germany, Scandinavia, and the Bretch Isles, lambs quarters was eaten at the first green of spring. The plant that ended the longest the plant that ended the long hunger of winter. In Wales, it was associated with Kellen Mai Beltane as a plant of vitality and renewal.

SPEAKER_02 15:58

So next we're going to talk about dock, also known as curly dock and broad dock. What this signals, dock is one of the most reliable indicators of wet, poorly drained, acidic soil with low calcium and high clay content. Its deep taproot, like the dandelion, is a soil breaker, but it tends to appear, it tends to appear in areas that stay waterlogged after rain. It often co-appears with rushes and sedges, truly waterlogged ground, plantain, compacted trafficked areas, and buttercup, more wetland indicators. What your soil likely lacks is drainage, calcium, DOC thrives in low calcium environments, and a neutral pH, DOC prefers pH that's between 5.5 to 6.0. Natural amendments to help with this, install trench rains or swales to redirect water. Add agricultural lime in autumn to raise pH and calcium levels. Incorporate gypsum, a calcium sulfate. It adds calcium without significantly altering pH. Plant comfrey is a soil binding companion. Its taproots break compacted compaction while its leaves provide a potassium-rich mulch.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

Now we're going to talk about clover, the nitrogen fixer. What it signals. White clover, red clover, and their relatives are nature's green manure. When clover appears spontaneously, your soil is low in nitrogen when the earth has self-prescribed the cure. Clover works in partnership with rhizobine bacteria, which colonize its roots and fix atmospheric nitrogen directly into the soil. A stand of clover can fix 100 to 150 pounds of nitrogen per acre per year for free. What your soil likely lacks is nitrogen, often from overuse, long chemicals that kill soil biology or heavy cropping. Soil microbial soil microbial diversity. Natural amendments do not remove clover. Let it grow and die back in place. Mow high four plus inches to allow clover to thrive alongside grass. Add compost to encourage the soil biology that clover depends upon. If you want to go further, overseed with mixed clover as a deliberate green manure crop. As sacred note, three leaf clovers was a sacred three leaf clover was sacred in Celtic traditions long before Saint Patrick repurposed it. The triple form was associated with the threefold goddess, maiden, mother, and crone, and with the spiritual principle of trip triplicity that runs through Celtic cosmology.

SPEAKER_02 19:03

Mustard. It's also known as the fumigant. Weird, I know. What it signals. Wild mustard in the garden often signals disturbed previously cultivated soil, often with a history of disease pressure. Mustard is alleopathic. It releases compounds that suppress other plants and soil-borne pathogens, including some fungal diseases. In biodynamic and organic farming, mustard is deliberately planted as a biofumigant. What your soil may have history of fungal disease or brassica club root. So if you grow broccoli and the roots aren't very good, then you have a fungal issue. Disturbed recently tilled soil and a possible pH imbalance. Natural amendments, mow mustard before it sets to seed and till it in. It's glucosin glucosinolates, release fumigant gases that suppress soil pathogens. Follow with compost and a fungal dominant mulch such as wood chips. Rotate brassica crops to prevent disease buildup.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

Now our favorite one, the nettle. Everybody loves these not barehanded. No, definitely not. So it's called the fertility indicator. So what it signals, where stinging nettles grow abundantly, the soil is expectionally fertile, high in nitrogen, phosphorus, and iron. Nettle is associated with old habitations, Viking log houses, medieval settlements, and places where animals have lived and died for generations. Finding a stand of nettles is in traditional knowledge like finding buried treasure. The land was rich here. What your soil has high organic matter, deep fertility legacy, and often slightly acidic to neutral pH.

SPEAKER_02 21:14

That's probably why I have nettle growing near my pine trees.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

Probably. So the natural amendments harvest nettle and use it as a liquid fertilizer. Steep in water for two to three weeks to create a nitrogen-rich plant tea. Use nettle as chop and drop mulch around heavy feeding plants like tomatoes and squash. Nettle fiber was used for centuries to make cloth, which is a truly sacred, fully usable plant. On a sacred note, in Norse tradition, nettle was associated with Thor, the god of thunder, strength, and the common people. It was used to make Sailcloth, fishing nuts, and linen grade fabric. Finding it on your land would have been seen as a blessing. Stinging nettles are really good tea.

SPEAKER_02 22:12

And if you if you boil it, you can literally wipe the nettles off without them stinging you. And then you can actually consume it like a like a cooked spinach.

unknown 22:25

Yeah, no.

SPEAKER_02 22:26

It's supposed to be really, really good for you.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

Supposed to be, but no. Yeah. Not my kind of tea.

SPEAKER_02 22:31

Alright. So we're gonna meet the uh sacred weeds a little deeper now. So we're gonna return to our three featured plants, but go deeper into their ancestral stories and their fur full. They're firm and their full ecological and medicinal profiles. So dandelion. The dandelion's name came from the French Dante de Lion, tooth of the lion, referring to the jagged edges of its teeth. But its name across cultures reveals its stature. In Persian it is Castec, the little messenger. In Welsh it is Danteu, also lion's tooth, but spoken with reverence. In Irish Gaelic, I'm gonna butcher this horribly. It is Kesserban, the bitter herb. You're gonna look it up. I wanna hear it and see how bad, how far off I was. It has been used as food and medicine for at least 3,000 years across Europe, Asia, and North America. The full plant use, you can use the leaves, raw or cooked. They are one of the most nutrient-dense greens available, higher in beta carotene than carrots, more calcium than milk by weight, rich in vitamins A, C, and K. The flowers are edible raw, used to make dandelion wine, a tradition with roots and medieval European brewing. And I remember as a kid having my dad telling my dad telling me to pick dandelions so he could make dandelion wine.

SPEAKER_01 24:12

Yeah, I've heard dandelion wine is really good.

SPEAKER_02 24:14

Did he save me a bottle for when I turned 21? No.

SPEAKER_01 24:18

No.

SPEAKER_02 24:20

The spiritual and mid magical use, seeds blown from the clock, which is the seed head, had long been used for divination and wish magic. The plant was sacred in Celtic traditions as one of the harbingers of involv and ostara. In Victorian flower language, dandelion represented faithfulness and oracle.

SPEAKER_00 24:40

Dandelion.

SPEAKER_02 24:45

It's not doing. Did you type in the Gaelic? Do you want me to Irish to Gaelic? English to Gaelic kind of letter. Here, just type in the Gaelic word. It's C-A-I-S-E-A-R-B-H-A-N. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Oh. No, no. We're having phone issues. Alright. C A I S E A R B H A.

SPEAKER_01 25:20

Thingy on the top. With a thingy on the top. No, this one. N.

unknown 25:28

Caesaben.

SPEAKER_02 25:29

Caesaben? I was so far off.

SPEAKER_01 25:33

Caesaben. Alright. So now the plantain. Plantain is perhaps the single most underestimated plant in the temperature. Temperate world. In the Nine Herbs Charm, a tenth century Anglo-Saxon healing text preserved in the Lacnuga Lacnuga Manuscript, Plantain is named Wegbrade and described as and you, Plantain, mother of herbs, open to the east, mighty within. Over you carts creaked, over you queens rode, over brides cried out, over you bulls snorted, all this you withstood and resisted. So you may you withstand poison and contagenon and the evil that roams the land. This is not a plant that with was taken lightly. It was sung over, and it was invoked with poetry. So the full plant use. Fresh leaves, chewed or crushed, applied directly to insect stings, bee stings, nettle stings, draws out the sting and reduces inflammation within minutes. This is first aid from the earth itself. Leaf tea, traditionally used for respiratory complaints, coughs, and bronchitis, contains acubin and inflamm anti-inflammatory gly glyocide. Excuse me. Seeds.

SPEAKER_02 27:17

Cilium is cilinum fiber is what everybody drinks.

SPEAKER_01 27:20

Okay. Like metabusol is all cilium fiber. So seeds. Cilium is a close relative, rich in mucolegnos fiber, soothing to digestive inflammation. Topical poultice. Used for minor wounds, cuts, and abrasions. The tannins in plantain are estrogen and antimicrobial.

SPEAKER_02 27:45

And let's not be consumed or confused, sorry, with the plantain that is a banana shape.

SPEAKER_01 27:51

Yeah, no. Yeah. There's they're completely different.

SPEAKER_02 27:56

Which happen to have similar names. Lamb's Quarters. Lamb's Quarters is a close relative to quinoa, all itself now regarded as a superfood and sold in at premium prices. They belong to the same family, Amaranthusae, and share many of the same nutritional properties. And yet Lamb's Quarters grows for free in almost every disturbed soil in the temperate world. Its nutritional profile includes higher in protein per calorie than most commercial leafy greens. It is exceptionally high in calcium, iron, and magnesium, rich in vitamins A, C, and B complex, contains all essential amino acids, making it a complete protein source when eaten in quantity. I don't know what the quantity is, but more than we obviously eat now. More than we could probably consume. Lamb's cordice seeds have been found in the stomachs of Iron Age bog bodies in Denmark and Ireland, eaten as a last meal or as a ritual food. Medieval European peasants depended on it as a hunger green. It is one of the pot herbs gathered in early spring before cultivated crops were ready. Indigenous communities in North America used related species of chinopodium as both food and ceremonial plants. Good job! No, I know I thought that one just fine.

SPEAKER_01 29:25

So we're gonna reframe invasive a little bit deeper. Not all plants are created equal, and this conversation deserves new one. There are genuinely invasive species. Plants introduced from other continents that outcompete native flora, disrupt food webs, and damage ecosystems. Japanese knotweed, kudzu, purple loose strife, these require serious management and should not be romanticized. But the category of invasive is applied far too broadly, often to plants that are adaptable and fast growing in disturbed ground, cosmetically displeasing to human aesthetics, and simply growing where they weren't planted. Before you label any plant invasive, ask, is this plant truly out competing native species and damaging the local ecosystem? Or is it simply growing in a disturbed place where native plants can't yet survive? Because there is a crucial ecological concept at work here. Rederal species. Rederal plants are those adapted to disturbed ground. Roadsides, construction sites, garden beds, abandoned lots. They are not the climax community of a healthy ecosystem. They are the first responders. The emergency medical team the earth sends in when the ecosystem has been damaged. They are doing their job. The question is not how to eliminate them, it is how to transition beyond them toward the healthy, diverse, native plant community that should eventually follow.

SPEAKER_02 31:19

In many pagan and earth-paced traditions, there's a concept called, sometimes called the medicine of the margins. The idea that what grows at the edges, at boundaries, at thresholds, in the in-between places, holds a particular kind of power. Weeds are quintessentially liminal plants. They grow between the sidewalk and the road, between the garden and the wild, between the cultivated and the forgotten. In witchcraft and folk magic, liminal spaces are sacred spaces. The place where two worlds meet is the place where the veil is thinnest. Perhaps that is why weed plants have such long histories in magical use. Plantain was gathered at crossroads, the most liminal of all locations, for protective magic. Dandelion was used in divination, reading the future from the behavior of the seed clock. Nettle was hung above doorways and in barns as protection against malevolent spirits. Mugwort, a common roadside weed, is one of the most widely used plants in head witchery, dream work, and warding magic. The plants we discard are often the plants with the deepest stories.

SPEAKER_01 32:30

So now let's close the loop between the sacred and the practical. If you have a garden, a homestead, or even a patch of lawn that you're working with, here is a simple practice drawn from both ancestral land wisdom and modern ecological science. The weed reading practice. Before you pull a single plant, sit with it at first. Ask, where is this plant growing most densely? Is the soil there hard and dry or wet and soft? Is this area shaded or sunny? Has this area been recently disturbed? Then cross-reference with your indicator plant guide above. What is the land telling you? Once you've read your weeds, here is a general amendment sequence for common soil problems. For compacted soil like dandelion plantain dominant. 1. Aerate mechanically or use a broad fork. 2. Apply 2 to 3 inches of quality compost. 3. Top dress with 3 to 4 inches of wood chip mulch. 4. Plant a deep rooted cover crop like day and rash, crimson clover, or hairy vetch. And five, do not till again. Let the soil biology rebuild. For acidic, poorly draining soil like dock, buttercup, horse tiltomet. 1. Install drainage solutions where possible. 2. Apply agricultural lime at recommended rate. Get a soil test first. 3. Add gypsum for calcium without pH spike. 4. Incorporate compost to improve structure. 5. Follow with a broad seed mix of grasses and nitrogen fixers. For low nitrogen soil, covered clover dominant. 1. Let the clover grow. It is fixing the problem. 2. Add compost tea or liquid kelp to support soil biology. 3. Mow high and leave clippings in place. 4. When clover dies back, plant a heavy feeder in that location. It has been prepared. Now for fertile high organic soil like nettle and lamb's quarter is dominant. 1. Harvest and eat. You are standing in abundance. 2. Use nettle tea as liquid fertilizer elsewhere in the garden. 3. Channel the fertility into productive planting. And four, celebrate. This soil is working.

SPEAKER_02 35:17

The plants we call weeds did not choose that name. We gave it to them, and names have power.

SPEAKER_01 35:23

The moment we renamed these plants from nuisance to indicator, from invasive to pioneer, from weed to teacher, everything changes. We stop fighting the land and we start reading it. We stop pulling blindly and we start listening. We stop performing control and start practicing relationship.

SPEAKER_02 35:59

Plantain is not just something you step on, it is one of the nine sacred healing herbs of the Anglo-Saxon world, sung over in poetry, gathered at rail at crossroads, pressed into wounds to draw out the sting of life.

SPEAKER_01 36:13

Land's Quarters is not an intruder. It is a relative of quina and complete protein, a hunger green that has ended the cold famine of many a spring for many a family who knew that grew who knew what grew beneath their feet. They are teachers. They are survivors. They are the land's own language if we are willing to become fluent. So the next time you see a weed, pause, kneel down, learn its name, ask what it's telling you about the ground beneath you, and then decide, not from fear or habit or aesthetic, but from relationship. Because what you've been taught to remove might be exactly what you are meant to understand.