Buckets of rain, buckets of weeds
Sometimes it’s clear you have all that you need
From Rachel’s Desk 4/16/25
Oh, weeds. They’re abundant, aggressive, and….useful? Stick with me here, people.
I have a major thing for recycling. Something about turning trash into treasure just really gets me going. Clearing an overgrown space to start a farm has given me plenty of “trash” to work with, and learning about all the ways I can transform it has kept me motivated despite the repeat encounters with poison ivy.
One methodology I’ve been researching while looking for ways to build soil fertility is Korean Natural Farming, or KNF. It’s a pretty vast subject, and I’m certainly no expert, but the gist is that this system teaches you how to make very cheap gardening inputs from materials you already have available. And if you have weeds available, (who doesn’t, this time of year?) you can turn them into a mineral-rich fertilizer by letting them sit in a bucket covered in rainwater for a couple of weeks. Now, admittedly, this concoction does not smell or look pretty once it’s done. Think eu de horse barn. In my experience, if you can get past dipping some out and putting it into you watering can, you will be rewarded with greener, more vibrant plants in a matter of days. If you’re brave enough, here’s how you do it:
1.) Pick a mess of weeds, shaking as much dirt off the roots as you can. You want just the green part, and you can even cut the roots off and compost them if that’s easier. As you pick, pack them down into a bucket.
2.) Once the bucket is almost full, cover the weeds with rainwater, or city water that you let sit out for about a day. Letting city water sit open in a bucket allows the chlorine to evaporate, and that’s a good thing because it allows more of the helpful bacteria on the weeds to multiply and end up in your garden.
3.) Add a handful of crumbly, rich soil from under some healthy trees. You want the soil that’s right underneath the layer of leaves. I like to grab some when I’m out walking the dogs at our local nature center, but you may have a good spot on your property. What you’re doing here is adding more helpful microbes that will break down the weeds in the bucket and turn them into good stuff that your plants can use.
4.) Now put a lid on the bucket, and set it somewhere away from areas you hang out because it will be pretty stinky as it ferments.
5.) After a couple of weeks, hold your nose, open the bucket, and view the beautiful mess of plant nutrients that you have helped create! It will look kind of like murky pond water. To use it, dip out a half a cup per gallon of water in your watering can and drench the soil with it. You can also get really fancy and add it to a sprayer to foliar feed your plants. I promise, the barnyard smell dissipates quickly after you use it, and your garden will thank you!
For whatever reason, most of us tend to view having weeds in the garden as a problem, or an impediment at the very least. Learning to use them has got me thinking a lot about perceived problems in general. Have you ever had a big, exciting idea, gotten immersed in the planning, gotten the guts to get started, then a problem turns up and you just freeze or maybe even freak out? I know I have. Isn’t it hilarious how we know for a fact that reality never matches expectation, and yet we still are surprised when a problem, or a weed, springs up seemingly out of nowhere? Can we get past our shock and decide to use what’s actually in front of us? Can we decide to pick up our mishaps and mistakes, pack them in a bucket, top them with a scoop of our own perfectionism, and let that stuff compost into something that will help us grow? Will it stink? Probably, but won’t it be worth it when your dreams are growing like crazy and you know you didn’t let a few weeds get in your way?
Here’s to moving forward, imperfectly, and hopefully with a little humor. As always, thank you so much for following along as I share the process of building this urban farm. I hope whatever you are building you keep going, and you also get a little time to bask in the Spring sunshine and appreciate how far you’ve already come.
Rachel
