re: “Do we need weed-free gardens?”
 
One can credibly argue against the need for putting-green lawns and pristine flower gardens.  Personally, I find dandelions in grass rather pretty – at least while they’re still in the yellow stage.
 
It is a harder argument against the need to control weeds in the vegetable garden.  Weeds compete with your food plants for resources – water, nutrients, sunlight, etc.  Depending on the crop, the weed and the year, uncontrolled weeds can cause anything from a diminished yield to a complete choke-out of your vegetables.  (Or no effect at all if your food-crop is even more aggressive than the weeds.  So, no, dandelions are not bad in pumpkin patches, mint gardens or strawberries – those crops will choke out almost anything and must be actively contained if you want to grow anything else.)  But yes, dandelions are bad in cucumber patches, lettuce rows and most of the other foods we like.
 
Of course the original question about "weed-free gardens" was really a proxy for the question of whether we as a society need to use as much bee-killing pesticide as we do.  That's a difficult question.  A part of me wants to say "of course we don't" and that Ontario's approach (flat ban on cosmetic pesticide use) is the way to go.  A larger part of me worries, however, at my right to make that claim.  I like my broccoli and see great value in keeping the weeds under control.  As a food-crop, that would be an allowed, non-cosmetic use.  Who is to say that my enjoyment of broccoli outweighs my neighbor's enjoyment of her azaleas, though?  Why should I get to use safe pesticides to protect the plants I like but she can't use those same pesticides to protect the plants she likes?
 
Sure, we might both be better off using mechanical techniques (mulch, child labor, specialized planting techniques, etc) to control the pest than to use chemicals but that's a different question.  The peril in the original comment is whether I have a right to say that my aesthetics - which include "natural" surroundings and lots of bees - are automatically better than your aesthetics which include the artistic beauty of ornamentals.
 
Mike Rossander


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