What Our Grandparents Knew: A Plant Enthusiast’s Guide to Backyard Edible Weeds

Samantha Atkinson reimagines backyards by sharing knowledge on her Wandering Herbals Edible Weeds Walks.

What happens when a plant you’ve cursed for years suddenly becomes the cure for a toothache, a salad ingredient or a natural soil fixer? We may see weeds as a nuisance—something to be sprayed, dug out or mowed down. But for edible weed plant enthusiast Samantha Atkinson, weeds can be medicine, food and teachers.

The Biophilic Blueprint explored edible weeds with Samantha, who says people may be unaware of the potential in their backyard—and sometimes even fearful of trying them. That has been her mission for her Wandering Herbals Edible Weeds Walks in Nannup: to encourage curiosity about plants and connection with the environment.

Samantha is inspiring people to pause before spraying weeds, showing them how to identify plants that could serve as food or medicine. She says the ripple effects spread far beyond personal health—touching the soil, the insects, the bees and the way we connect to our environment.

“For me, the big thing is getting people excited about the living world around them, and learning how to feed themselves, and especially how to make medicine for themselves,” Samantha tells The Biophilic Blueprint. “A lot of people are really shocked at the amount of weeds, or what they term weeds, that are growing in their lawn. Their hubbies have been spraying for years trying to get rid of them.

“My favourite part is when all the women go home at the end of the walk adamant that their hubby is never going to spray or mow or weed the lawn ever again.

“It makes my heart happy watching so many people just learning how much is around them.”

Through her walks, Samantha is revealing how plants underfoot can be allies, capable of nurturing health, connecting us to heritage and transforming the way we interact with our environment. She says the walks awaken fond memories of old family traditions for participants—pointing out that many weeds are introduced European species in the South West of Western Australia. Sam notes they carry cultural resonance.

“It often awakens memories like, ‘my nan used to tell me about this plant’ or ‘my nan never let pop mow that patch in the garden’. That familial link helps them to feel closer to their nan, and closer to the plant,” Samantha tells the Biophilic Blueprint.

“Not only are they familiar, especially for some of the European immigrants that are here, often their grandparents would have used them or taught them about them when they were kids. But they're (edible weeds) also part of our—being mostly of European heritage—ancestry as well. Quite often people will have a connection to a plant but they don't know what it is …. it's part of their ancestry.”

Spirit, Synchronicity and a Life with Plants

Samantha’s own journey with edible weeds evolved in Nannup and New Zealand where she explored and experimented with plants. “I’ve always been a plant person, but I was put onto this path by spirit—it’s definitely my life path,” Sam tells the Biophilic Blueprint.

“When I talk about spirit … it's just my word for God, the universe, the cosmos. God created all of this right here at our fingertips but we're too scared. We've got to go to the doctor and get a bit of paper,” she explains.

Experimenting with plants, she taught herself through trial and error about edible weeds. “I started treating small things like period pains or a cut or a bruise. I'm all self-taught, from life experience or from books.”

Practicing the same remedies over and over again, she discovered what worked, and learned the nuances of different plants. Now her hands-on approach helps people experience plants differently.

On returning to Nannup from New Zealand, friends encouraged her to share her knowledge with others—and her walks began. “It built from there,” Samantha says.

Changing minds, one skeptic at a time

By learning to see the plants underfoot as food, as medicine and as ecological messengers, Samantha’s walks are helping people reimagine their lawns, their health and their relationship with the natural world.

“I definitely have had a few people come along being sceptical, especially at the beginning, when I first started doing my walks. I'd have a lot of husband-and-wife couples come along, and the wife would say, ‘Come on, you're coming,’ and the husband was like, ‘This is bull****,’” Sam laughs.

It’s not just about stopping the spray—it ripples out to help the insects, the bees and the wider environment,” Samantha tells the Biophilic Blueprint.

Two plants frequently impress participants: plantain and mullein.

“So plantain—Plantago lanceolata—is the common weed that usually grows. You'll find it in your lawn and along pathways, growing in cracks in your driveways, pretty much anywhere. It grows all over the world. It's edible and medicinal, but it's such an innocuous plant that people try to get rid of all the time, and it's such powerful medicine,” Samantha explains.

“Apart from being edible, you can cook it or use it in salads and things like that. You can make plantain chips, you can use it in place of kale. The whole plant is edible. The seeds—especially one particular species of plantain—is where psyllium husk comes from. You can collect the seeds and make your own. You can toast them up and put them into breads,” she says.

“Medicinally wise, one of my favourite uses for plantain is for toothaches. You just scrunch up a leaf and tuck that in onto the tooth. And I've saved my teeth a few times before I was able to get to the dentist, or to be able to afford to get to a dentist, and cured many a tooth infection or a tooth abscess just with a bit of plantain.”

“The mullein, so there's two types of mullein that grow around a place. There's Verbascum and Verbascum thapsus. So the Verbascum thapsus is a really distinctive plant. It has big, wooly leaves and is sometimes called a blanket herb, and it'll grow a big, tall flower spike with just tiny, little yellow flowers all over it.” Mullein is known for respiratory healing and cleansing the lung tissue, Samantha says. “At the moment, it is pretty popular online and in social media circles because of its respiratory medicinal aspects.”

“I've had people use mullein as a tincture when they've forgotten their inhalers, and quite successful. The flowers are amazing to make into an infused oil for ear infections,” Samantha explains about some of the benefits. “The root can be made into a tincture or into a salve to help with lower back pain and joint pain.”

Guidance and safety for learners

Samantha recommends that anyone interested in using edible or medicinal weeds should do their research first. She advises checking reputable sources such as books, Wikipedia or dedicated plant identification communities online—but cautions against relying on AI for plant identification.

“In the south west, most common weeds are relatively safe European introductions. There’s some things around that if you eat a few buckets of, then you might start noticing some liver damage or something, but most of the plants that are poisonous are so bitter and so disgusting … you'd be hard pushed to consume enough to do any damage,” Samantha said.

She also advises caution when harvesting in urban areas. Plants growing along roadsides, laneways or old work sites may absorb toxins from the soil. “Always check whether areas have been sprayed, wash your harvest thoroughly, and if harvesting regularly in urban areas, consult your local council,” she says.

Samantha does not teach native plants or mushrooms due to safety considerations and her own non-Indigenous background. Her focus remains on edible and medicinal weeds. “Most of what I concentrate on is the introduced weeds—a lot of European plants.”

Applying The Biophilic Blueprint: Curiosity Over Control

At The Biophilic Blueprint, this approach exemplifies what it means to see the world through a lens of embracing, learning and curiosity rather than killing or removing what we don’t understand. Are we destroying life on our doorstep that could, instead, nourish us and the environment? Perhaps it begins with a weed, a medicinal purpose, less fertiliser or a new way of managing our garden.

Disclaimer: While we encourage the exploration of edible weeds, The Biophilic Blueprint does not take responsibility for your learning experience. Please consult qualified professionals and do your research before consuming or using any plants for medicinal purposes. For guidance, you can contact Samantha Atkinson at herbalwanderer@gmail.com.