Want to know what to do with all that chickweed in your yard and garden beds this spring?

Try a little olive oil and garlic.

Chickweek seeds itself in the fall and flourishes during warmer, moister winter days and goes completely crazy in early spring.

It forms mats of shallow-rooted green matter with white flowers, and it is pretty easy to pull it out, especially when the soil is damp. If you let it go, it can choke out other flowers in your garden and grass in your lawn.

But instead of cursing it, you might try cooking it. Or rubbing it on your skin.

This weed is widely prescribed by herbalists as a remedy for both internal and external inflammatory conditions, such as rheumatism and eczema and psoriasis. It does a good job of relieving skin irritation, and can be used to relieve the pain of burns, insect stings and skin rashes.

It also has mild diuretic and laxative qualities and is often recommended as a fat reducer!

Claims include its use as a "blood cleanser," when cooked and eaten, and for soothing sore throats and stomach ulcers.

There are all sorts of chickweed recipes....as a pesto, in salad dressings and as a salad green and sauted in olive oil and garlic like spinach.

All of this makes chickweek a little less contemptible, but not any less annoying.

Photo courtesy of Scotts Miracle Gro