One of the hills I’ll die on is refusing to play with chemical pesticides (or synthetic fertilisers for that matter).
And I don’t say that as a career ‘tree hugger’ – it actually took me a long time to realise how damaging sprays are.
Less than 10 years ago I had a ‘chemical corner’ in the shed that was probably worth more than my car and I thought that regular spraying was an indication of my sound agricultural citizenship.
But after a few years of repeatedly pew-pewing anything that looked like it shouldn’t be there, the penny finally dropped…
One day I dug a hole to plant a tree and thought “This dirt looks…really um…dead”
Turns out, I was bang on the money. The fact my paddocks were completely bare should have helped with realisation but hey, I like to learn things slowly and expensively.
Since then I’ve studied permaculture, and went to ‘soil school’ where I sat up the front like a nerd I would’ve tormented at school.
It helped me realise that with every spray application I was destroying the plants that were trying to repair compaction, over-grazing and my last bout of poison (and taking all beneficial soil biology down with the ship).
These days I’m a big fan of ‘weeds’ and noticed something really interesting in my cattle yards this week.
A few years ago they were under huge load when my bush-caught brumbies lived in them. It was the typical story of heavy hoof traffic and excess manure.
Then last year, as the soil recovered – the yards looked like the set from Day of the Triffids, full of scary, spiky, sprawling weeds with all the things Old Me would have sprayed the hell out of.
But, just look at the yards now – it’s like the Garden of Fucking Eden 
The reason being, that those weeds were doing a job. They were sending down tap roots and covering the bare earth – all to reverse the compaction, improve the soil structure and improve water infiltration.
I didn’t spray, slash or even sneeze on those weeds while they were at work – and contrary to popular belief, they’ve not exploded into invasive proportions.
Instead, they brought minerals to the surface via their roots and heroically dropped like dead soldiers to rebalance the soil with nutrient dense mulchey goodness.
Back in the day I’d consult Dr Google with the words ‘Is (insert weed name) toxic’ to which the answer was always yes… but these days I love seeing what work they’re doing and how they can benefit animals and the earth.
So if you’re spending a fortune on supplements, while killing weeds – maybe consider the following
Pigweed is an antioxidant superpower with the highest land based source of Omega 3 fatty acids.
Marshmallow’s mucilage slimey goodness is fabulous for gastro intestinal upsets…yep, that includes equine ulcers.
Thistles have anti-inflammatory and liver protection properties.
Nettles are one of the most nutrient dense greens on the planet. They’re high in protein, vitamins and minerals and with a profile like that, they’re probably worth the effort (the stingy bits disappear if you dry them or wilt them FYI)
Needless to say there are oodles more and I’d love to know what’s growing where you are and if you’ve seen the benefits they bring 
P.S Would it even be fair if I didnt mention my Roany Pony? He was trapped from the wild as a 13yo stallion and while we had a few hairy moments (ya girl and her stumpy legs leapt that fence in a single bound when he pinned his ears and came at me one day 
)… He grew to be the most affectionate, darling, sweetest little man, trained under saddle and now living domestic life bliss down the road
