To Weed or Not to Weed, that is the Question Asked About Dandelions and Clovers by Home Gardeners on Reddit

To Weed or Not to Weed, that is the Question Asked About Dandelions and Clovers by Home Gardeners on Reddit

A.G. Woody

The two groupings of plants known as dandelions and clovers are currently classified in common English language gardening discourse as weeds, despite having no biological differences from their so-called flower counterparts. Despite this apparent categorization, a trend supporting the rebranding of dandelions and clovers has slowly been taking root in many online home-gardening communities, one of which can be found on reddit.com under the handle r/gardening. As both this trend and the use of online forums such as reddit.com for observations and analysis are relatively recent, there is a lack of information and data regarding the change in the conversation about weeds in online home-gardening communities. This paper, therefore, examines the discourse surrounding dandelions and clovers as weeds through four r/gardening posts to show one popular and one lesser opinion for both dandelions and clovers that utilize multiple linguistics strategies such as animacy and lack thereof, metaphor-based rhetoric, and discontinuities in phrasing and word choice that either denote or promote these plants as weeds. The analysis of these posts shows that the more popular opinion has shifted from the old way of classifying dandelions and clovers as cruel and invasive weeds to recognizing them as beautiful and intentional flowers that hold agency and support local ecosystems.