Steve wrote:
To warp this thread around to something half way serious, I have often
wondered if I am wasting my time pulling and hoeing the weed Purslane.
It only gets several inches tall and forms a dense carpet that would
probably exclude other taller weeds. If I keep letting it go to seed, I
think it would soon be the only surviving weed in the whole garden.
Maybe it wouldn't be good with some plants like carrots or spinach but I
can't think it would compete much with corn or cabbage.
This thought came to me when I was really tired of weeding last summer
and it's probably more an indication of laziness than it is a good idea.

Steve
PS don't tell me to eat the stuff. I know it's edible but it tastes bad
raw and I will not likely ever bother to try it cooked.

Weeds are only a plant that grows somewhere you don't want it to.
However, purslane from my experience seems to prefer acidic soil. So,
if you don't want to weed it, and don't want to eat it but can think of
some plants that like a more alkaline condition,then you have your
answer, Use lime/dolomite whenever you find purslane getting in your
way. Either that or get some ducks onto the job. They love the stuff.
My pet hate (weed)are grasses that the locals here in Tasmania call
twitch. Onion twitch and rope twitch are my biggest problem as if left
alone they eventually strangle everything else . I've been hand weeding
the stuff now, 7 days a week for 3 years but it still comes back. Time
to give in and crack out the 'Feusilade' a highly expensive & toxic
agricultural pesticide. As I'm getting too old for all that hand
weeding it's now a choice between poisoning the stuff or getting a
smaller more managable property. As this place
http://tinyurl.com/y6tp3g is otherwise heaven on earth I'm going to
swallow my organic scruples and get nasty with the twitch.
That other kind of 'weed' has a number of agriculural uses, apart from
the psychoactive one. In Australia it's our biggest cash crop, even
though illegal.
In my mid 60's I still enjoy the odd special occassion toke.