Understanding the garden
There are at least a hundred weed species in Dutch gardens, the most notorious and persistent of which are ground elder, horsetail and meadow bindweed. All three have such strong roots that they are almost impossible to weed. The type of weed in your garden says a lot about the soil and its quality. If you have a problem with horsetail, for instance, it means that the garden lacks minerals. So there is work to be done if you want to improve it.

Other weed facts: Nettles and ground elder grow in nutrient-rich soil, coltsfoot prefers soil with poor structure and cleavers love nitrogen-rich soil.

Making fertiliser from weeds
It may sound crazy, but you can turn weeds into fertiliser that will benefit your garden. Note that we are not talking about the whole weed, because the seeds in the flowers, the buds and the roots cannot be used. The stems and leaves, however, can be used as they contain minerals such as manganese, magnesium, iron and copper. These are very valuable for the garden.

You can shred the stems on the compost heap or make liquid manure from them. The latter is also called slurry and is much quicker and easier to make than compost. To do this, leave the weed pieces to rot in a bucket of rainwater and pour this in with the garden plants. Especially potted plants love this.