What Weeds Tell You About Your Soil

Weeds can help reveal a lot about the state of your soil. The list below categorizes weeds by the soil they tend to thrive in. Once you know what type you have, it will be easier to decide what to plant (or how to amend the soil).

Wet

  • Curly dock
  • Buttercup
  • Horsetail
  • Smartweed
  • Bull sedge
  • Jewelweed

Compacted

  • Chicory
  • Bindweed
  • Burdock
  • Field mustard

Acidic

  • Dandelion
  • Mullein
  • Stinging nettle
  • Cinquefoil
  • Hawkweed

Alkaline

  • Nodding thistle
  • Stinkweed
  • Pennycress

Nutrient-poor

  • wild parsnip
  • sheep sorrel
  • henbit
  • dog fennel

These are notes I made about gardening. See more gardening notes