We define weeds as a plant growing out of the place where you
want it or growing at the wrong time. Sometimes these are plants
that grow easily in a place, from ‘garden escapees’ with parts
breaking off and being carried by birds, or downstream through
the catchment, sometimes seeds even hitch a ride on travellers’
shoes or in the folds of their clothes. Does this lovely little
flower deserve to be cast aside as ‘merely a weed’, a plant ‘in
the wong place’? its only fate to be removed where ever it has
the misfortune to grow? Well not in my garden. Chickweed are
edible tasty and nutritious, and better still they grow during
winter when a continuous homegrown supply of greens isn’t always
available in my cool climate garden. The Japanese celebrate this
little plant as one of the Seven Herbs of Winter and its used in
a traditional dish welcoming the return of Spring (or wishing
for it!) There are a couple of plants that have over the years
been locally known as chickweed in the Blue Mountains, Stellaria
media –