Hmm... In general I agree with you, but your statement is very vague and I don't think it properly expresses your sentiments. But you do have a great point in saying, "Hey some of these weeds make really pretty flowers and the wildlife really dig them," and, "It's my yard and I like to have these plants growing here; I will decide what is a weed to me." Applause! The exclusion of unwanted plants on one's property is definitely tradition, and non-negotiable for almost everyone. Deciding to like the wildflowers that showed up is one thing, but as you said yourself, "...except for anything that I consider invasive." The definition of weeds varies depending on current fashion, priorities, location on the globe, and many other factors. Until lawnmowers were common and inexpensive, lawns were uncommon and around buildings was packed bare earth, swept often. Currently, in the US, weeds are most commonly defined by entities such as agriculture, golfing, and the government entities responsible for maintaining parks and forests. They tell people which plants are weeds and how to kill them, so people follow the plan. This is an interesting phenomenon when we consider the dandelions which were brought to this continent as a food source and now there are packages one can buy for the specific reason of killing this plant. Since most of the currently-defined-as-weeds-in-most-places plants are also too vigorous, unattractive, short enough to be unappreciated, or have some other undesirable attribute that causes most gardeners to agree with the definition, it's unlikely that vast numbers of people could suddenly start welcoming current weeds. A lot of them genuinely are enemies to most people's priorities when the "weeds" take over the space where they want something else growing. The poisoning of weeds with fabricated chemical concoctions is a fairly new idea, not in practice long enough to be called a tradition, IMO, but not likely to end. Hopefully there will develop safer, smarter, more natural ways to do it more precisely when truly necessary. I don't own/use any of that stuff, but, for example... if I moved into a new place and discovered a huge poison ivy vine, I would want to make sure something killed it to the roots. Anything less dangerous than that I will handle manually or, as in the case of the berry vines along 1 side of my fence, just let them grow and enjoy the 47 berries for 3 days each spring instead of getting all torn up battling them. Makes a great sauce! There are other factors involved sometimes in mowing and weeding, too. Although I like some of the weeds I pull, they're great stuff for the compost and I can't have stuff growing densely enough that snakes would want to live there. It's also why although most people around here could care less what is growing in the lawn, it gets mowed often to keep it short enough to see a snake and to not be an attractive home for them. Although I did as much of it as I...

I didn't see the show and don't know of any garden by the civic center; however not too far from there is the Hayes Valley Farm. They re-routed the on/off ramp from our central freeway about ten years ago and this left an empty square block where the old off ramp was. That basically sat there unused (except by the homeless et al.) for several years. A few years ago some group took it over and turned it into a little community farm. I've never been in there but it looks cool and is way nicer than it was before. Here is a link that might be useful: Hayes Valley Farm

Looking for stories/characters around refurbishing Victory Gardens for a cable television network episode. We would like to follow the process from start to finish. Anyone have a suggestion of who we should talk with?

My backyard has 40 different varieties of fruit trees, peaches, nectarines, plums, plouts, pluerry, mandarins, oranges, mulberry, pomegranate, avocados. I have a dozen varieties of blueberries, 3 grapes, 10 varieties of strawberries, 8 types of raspberries. I'm growing 8 different heirloom tomatoes, 10 varieties of peppers most are hot peppers, herbs. I'm heading to a local nursery to see what they have with other vegetables so I can plant 6-10 varieties as well. I have seeds but I'd rather get an early start with the plants if they are available. I wasn't planning on the vegetables this year until this all happened. Most everything is in raised beds, air pots, half wine barrels , large clay pots with the exception of 6 trees.