In most home lawns, weeds are treated as a nuisance and not the desirable plants you want in your lawn. This is understandable. After all, you have a vested interest in your lawn (and in some cases, so does your HOA).  Having said that, if you step outside of the “perfect lawn” box for a moment, weeds, as plants in their own right, are a fascinating topic. Stinging nettles, for example, make a high-quality all-purpose fertilizer (soak them in a bucket of water for one to two weeks), and many common weeds are edible.  In addition to their uses as fertilizer and food, weeds have a long history of use as medicine.