Why We Love Our "Weeds"

When we came home after an 11 day vacation we were amazed how all that rainwater had transformed our front yard into a glorious habitat for pollinators and birds as well as a productive edible forest! 

The moringa trees  in the street side basin were HUGE - even the one that we thought had died in the freeze.

native trees: acacia and desert hackberry 

Our native trees - that we didn't water during the excessive heat warning -  had not only survived but were full and leafy.

The desert hackberry had lots of berries on it for the first time ever.

The small jujubes in another basin were twice their size and the big one was loaded with fruit, some of it ripe and ready to enjoy!  

The whole yard was covered by beautiful horse purslane and native grasses. (I had long since eradicated all the goat heads and other sticker weeds.)   I was concerned that some neighbors with gravel covered yards might call it a "jungle" overgrown with weeds. So the next day I was out there pulling the purslane and the poisonous spurge covering our walking trail.   I wanted to send a message to the neighbors that we had left those weeds there on purpose. I also uncovered some decorative cactuses and wild flowers. I pulled any weeds that were encroaching on the neighbor's yard or on the sidewalk. We try to be good neighbors. 

While I was out there, I saw pollinators flying around (lots of butterflies, a spectacular moth, wasps, and ants.) As I pulled out some yellowing purslane, I discovered a caterpillar on there. 

It was loving the purslane. When I was pulling out the spurge, I saw a trail of little ants going after it. I considered leaving it for them. After all...isn't it better to have them go after spurge than my trees? 

I inspected the soil under the purslane by the butterfly bush and I found a little caterpillar and the mushrooms! I was pleased to see that the weeds were nourishing the soil!

Just when I finished posting the caterpillar pic, a storm raged in. 

This development changed the direction of my story from the frustration I felt when two neighbors sprayed roundup this afternoon. Though I did watch water flow from one of the sprayed areas into the little patch of land where Dan likes to plant a three sisters garden.

And rain from the yard pictured on the left flows all the way down the street to the median where Dan wants to organize a neighborhood garden. The landscaper got the Roundup sprayed just in time to share it with the whole neighborhood. Yeah, yeah...I had to say something. 

But I'm excited to transition to a happier ending.  Documenting the effects of the raging storm on our catchment basins is a great chance to show how the native grasses and horse purslane help prevent flood damage. Check it out! 

See how the native grasses slow down the water to prevent erosion and hold in the water in our street-side basin that is home to our precious moringa trees. 

This picture shows how the native grasses slow down the roof water rushing from the downspout before it hits the smallest jujube tree. Then the horse purslane slows down and sinks in the water before it hits the last two trees. Those so called weeds help nourish the soil and attract pollinators to the flowering trees.

Clearing out the horse purslane on the path allows us to see how the water pools in around the path and then how well it sinks in soon after the rain stops. Dan dug the shallow basin so it slows down, spreads out and sinks in the water (a rainwater harvesting principle). The native grasses and purslane help it slow down and sink in too! 

So you can see why Dan and I love our "weeds." They help to make our basin work properly. And we think they are beautiful. 

City Council, Stop allowing City Maintenance to poison Tucson UPDATED

It's no secret my fondness for edible weeds or my complete disdain for Round Up. I hung a sign in the alleyway, "No Poison, Please. Edible Weeds Grow Here." I've done my best to educate the poor, misguided landscapers and maintenance workers who spray Round Up on every little weed and even baby palm trees. (Won't kill 'em anyway...) Sometimes I'm more successful than others. At a recent city council meeting, a woman took advantage of the public hearing period to urge the council to stop weeds from coming up this monsoon season by spraying pre-emergent herbicide all over town. Right then and there I decided to use my time to speak up about it. But Mayor Rothschild, in his great wisdom, had me speak on my other issue instead. That was just the nudge I needed to share my concerns with him and all the city council members in great detail... including links. lol

Feel free to write your Council Member too!

Dear Mayor Jonathon Rothschild and City Council Members:

I've been meaning to speak up at a city council meeting about the transportation department's overuse of herbicides for some time. After my mom got a severe headache from breathing in the Round Up sprayed in a right of way on our street, I spoke to the landscaper about it. He replied, “The city sprays it everywhere, so can we.”

Following the city's example.

Since then I have been very aware of herbicides sprayed on city property. The other day I was stunned to see an entire lot covered with it. Recently I walked by the County Public Service Center building. In the catchment basins - that should be an example of the best water-harvesting practices - there were turquoise patches of weed killer. Right where the rainwater sinks in to restore our aquifer! Even the Pima Department of Environmental Quality's G.I. hand books states that herbicides can sink into our ground water. I brought this up to the Pima Department of Environmental Quality just to be told that was the work of the city maintenance department.

I took this picture to show bad water-harvesting instalation - a native tree planted in the deepest part of basin.
But my camera inadvertently caught the herbicide right by the drain.

I am writing today because I was disturbed by a comment I heard at last night’s meeting. A woman from the “landscape advisory committee” suggested that monsoon season was upon us so the city should spray pre-emergent weed killer everywhere to keep the weeds from coming up.

I have several problems with that. First, it won’t keep the weeds from coming up. We have used so much that the weeds have grown resistant to it, so we need more and more to kill any. Weeds will come up after the monsoon rains anyway. By spraying them with herbicide before the monsoon rains, the poison will just run into our yards, playgrounds and those catchment basins (that are meant to sink the water into our ground water). The post-emergent herbicide, glyphosate, has been proven to cause cancer: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/widely-used-herbicide-linked-to-cancer/. However, there are also concerns about preemergent herbicides. It was once thought that herbicide contamination would be mitigated through filtration, but the active ingredients have been found in our ground water: https://water.usgs.gov/edu/groundwater-contaminants.html.

In response to a comment on facebook:  Yes, Roundup is a postemergent herbicide sprayed on weeds and grasses that have already sprouted. That has nothing to do with preemergent herbicides that are intended to keep weeds from sprouting in the first place. Observing the practice of landscapers and maintenance people around town, they frequently are misapplying Roundup as a preemergent. But preemergent herbicides have a number of issues. One is that any one chemical is only effective on a small subset of weeds, so multiple herbicides have to be sprayed to kill all of the "undesirable weeds." They also just don't work on some of the most noxious invasives, like buffel grass. The other problem is that the application period is very specific in order to kill the seeds when they are germinating. Not all landscapers are going to apply them at the right time to have any effect. Plus, they need to be watered after application to sink the chemicals into the soil. How many right of way sprayings are being watered immediately afterwards. They also shouldn't be used in a landscape with organic mulches because they will bind to the organic mulch and affect the growth of desirable plants. And, of course, just like the postemergents, they also contaminate the soil and the groundwater. Diuron, one of the pre-emergent herbicides recommended for use by the Arizona Department of Transportation has been shown to be toxic to birds, wildlife, and aquatic life and - even worse - one of the biproducts of the breakdown of diuron in the environment is the production of an even more toxic chemical, which stays in the soil and can contaminate groundwater. The European Union has banned its use, but of course it's still being recommended for use in the US.*

I have done my own monitoring on the effectiveness of herbicides on weeds. Every day, I walk by that house where the landscapers insist on spraying every little weed (and sometimes the whole yard) with industrial strength Round Up. I’ve observed that the herbicide works temporarily on the tiniest weeds, but even more weeds pop up by the next month – which get sprayed too. So it’s a never ending cycle of toxic weed killers in our neighborhood. Just wait a week or so for the weeds to die in the desert sun! Herbicides have no effect on Bermuda grass (which would take a bulldozer to get out the whole root system) or the bigger weeds.

We actually moved native grass into our catchment basin to help with erosion and sink in the rain.

We need to rethink what we consider acceptable desert landscaping. The plastic and gravel we use to keep weeds out of the yard also keeps rainwater from sinking in to restore our ground water. Many so-called weeds are planted in road side basins to help the water sink into the ground and prevent erosion. The native grass works with the mulch to create a sponge to soak in the monsoon rains.

We need to reconsider what we call “weeds.” Many Tucsonans glean amaranth and purslane (in Spanish, Verdolagas), my personal favorite. I’ve heard of preschool teachers taking their students on neighborhood walks and having them taste edible weeds. We certainly don’t want to poison children foraging at our neighborhood parks!

Purslane and amaranth I harvested from our alleyway buffet. Yum!

Please, look into the effect of herbicides on the public health and the cost of repeated use. Then ask the maintenance department to stop spraying that ineffective weed killer all over town.

Thank you,
Jana Segal
Sustainable Tucson Core Team

*Updated response added after e-mail to Mayor and City Council. 


UPDATE (April 2, 2019) Steve K wrote: "We'll see the draft on our Integrated Pest Mgmt program probably April 23rd study session. We're not banning Roundup, but what I've proposed is an inverted triangle in which the organic methods are broadly used first, and chemicals only as the last resort."

Obsessed with Purslane

If you've been following my blog awhile, you might recall how I weeded the garden just to have Dan come along and plant weeds in it. One of those weeds was purslane, (also known as pigweed or verdolagas in Spanish.) We heard that they could grow in harsh conditions, so Dan tried transplanting some in the gravelly dirt to the right of our garden. They immediately wilted and died.

To be honest, I have been kind of obsessed with this delicious, healthy (rich in Omega 3) weed since I found it growing abundantly on the service road behind our next door neighbors' fence. Free food! One day, I saw Dave weeding his yard so I asked him if he ever sprayed Roundup outside his fence. I was delighted when he said he hadn't. I took him on a little tour of the alleyway and showed him the purslane and asked if it was alright if we picked it. He said sure. I started weeding the burmuda grass to keep the city or another "helpful" neighbor from poisoning the area. A while back I had found a pile of dead bees by our gas meter. Since then I have been diligently weeding the area to keep the city from spraying it with poison. (Good news, the bees are back!)

Soon after our failed attempt to transplant the purslane, the purslane in the alleyway got bitter. (I think it went to seed...) Recently, I've noticed purslane popping up between the road and the side walk. It was often by some sort of water source - run off from the roof or an irrigation system. About  two weeks ago, I found a nice patch by the bus stop where there was a drip system watering the median strip. I picked a huge handful, carried it home (muddy roots and all) on the bus, and picked up some tomatillos and cilantro for Mexican verdolagas stew. As I washed the dirt off, I could almost taste the craveable stew. That's when Dan informed me that he wouldn't be eating that because it could be poisoned with Roundup. Determined that my effort not go to waste, I grabbed up my purslane and planted it (burying each plant a few inches away from each other) in the garden along side of some browning turnips. I figured it might come up next year or at least nourish the soil. Dan sporadically watered the few veggies left in our garden.

After a light rain, I was surprised to find the purslane growing where I planted it in the garden! I still had the tomatillos and cilantro, so I grabbed up a handful to make a small batch of the stew! It was as tangy and delicious as I remembered it. 

Here is my version of verdolagas stew slightly adapted from the traditional Mexican version. I love this just the way it is, but meat lovers can add pork. 

along with the purslane, we had fresh chard from our garden

MEXICAN VERDOLAGAS STEW FOR TWO

4 tomatillos 

A large bunch of purslane (verdolagas) 

2-3 cloves of garlic 

1/4 of a medium onion

1/2 bunch of cilantro (optional) 

1 small chile serrano (optional)

2 slices of lime (optional)

queso fresco (optional) 

serve with tortillas 

Grab as much purslane as you can from your garden or backyard. (Leave some of the plant in the ground if you want it to continue to grow.) Wash it well. You might as well wash the cilantro now too. Chop up the purslane and the top of the cilantro separately. Set aside.

Peal the garlic, cut a quarter of an onion, simply remove the tough covering off of the tomatillos and cut into easily blend-able wedges. Throw all but purslane into the blender or food processor until it is liquidy (is that a word?) Cook in small pot or skillet for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, chop the cilantro in blender. Add the purslane to stew. Cook until tender. Add cilantro just before serving. You can also melt a little queso fresco in the stew if you like. It's good either way. 

Serve with tortillas, add a squeeze of lime, crumble on some queso fresco. Yum! 

What we ended up having for dinner: fish rubbed with chili powder and topped with mango salsa, roasted corn with chili power, butter and lime, steamed chard from our garden and verdolagas stew on a flour tortilla.

Find a quicker version of this recipe on this blog. 

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IDENTIFICATION AND PREPARATION HINTS: Purslane is considered a succulent. The tear shaped leaves are smooth and thicker than a tree leaf. The stems are pinkish or light green. The stems have a nice tangy, crisp bite when raw. They are best eaten soon after picked. You probably don't want to eat it when it's gone to seed or has flowers because it gets bitter.  You can add it raw to salads, sauteed (good in an omelet), stir-fried, in soups, hidden in tomato based sauces, or in most recipes where you would use leafy greens. It has a milder taste than most leafy vegetables.  

If picking purslane in the wild, don't confuse it with spurge. You can tell the difference because spurge is woodier, branches spread out from the middle along the ground. It is sticky to the touch and has a white sap if you break the stem.

More PURSLANE RECIPES.