The official gardening world is catching up – Weeds are now rebranded as resilient plants.

Many years ago, probably on one of our courses, we predicted: ”Herb spirals are a thing of the past and Weed gardens are the future! And over the nearly 40 years of gardening our approach to weeds or plants growing in the wrong place or wild edibles has changed considerably. Gaby always says, she has two gardens, one at home and the other one wherever she decides to forage. Years ago we offered a course “Weeds to weed and weeds to eat”, now mulching with natural materials/fabrics or compost (in the No Dig way) is our way to go.
One of the more interesting discoveries looking up the word weed in the dictionary or on google search is the descriptive use of adjectives: wild, unwanted, valueless, undesirable, troublesome, uncultivated, menacing, noxious. What are weeds really? “Plants growing in the wrong place” is a standard answer for many organic gardeners. Others see them as wild food or even plants with many medicinal uses.
Now in May 2023 four of the 12 show gardens at this year’s Chelsea flower show  featured plants traditionally regarded as weeds, including brambles, thistles and knapweed as horticulturalists and the RHS finally move to rebrand them as “resilient plants”.
Sheila Das, a garden manager at Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Wisley in Surrey, said gardeners should stop using the term “weeds” in a derogatory way and instead refer to “weed heroes” or “superweeds”, while Tom Massey at the Royal Entomological Society (RES) said he regarded weeds as “resilient plants”.
Massey, who will create a garden at Chelsea for the RES, told the Times: “People often get really stressed out about dandelions on the lawn but they are a good source of nectar [for bees] because they flower early in the year and they’re really nice to look at. Even foxgloves and knapweed [are welcome]. There’s a lot of stigma around the word ‘weed’.”

We at Neantog are really delighted with that development! Really!