My damn problem is invasives.

We used to have an all native yard. But as my disability has gotten worse, maintaining that state has gotten prohibitive. Then that fucking hurricane messed things up, and it's pretty much wrecked in the terms of native plantings now.

Don't get me wrong, it's actually really pretty, all wild and green. But trying to get rid of stuff like kudzu is not an easy task, and it isn't the only thing that's taken advantage.

As far as I've been taught, a weed is just a plant growing in an undesirable location. If you had a tomato plant growing in your garden of orchids, that tomato plant could be considered a weed.

Are there any benefits to thistles or sand spurs???

That's how I do it. I've got a wide variety of plants which leads to a wider variety of bugs and even rabbits for a few years, but they were killed or run off by a cat.

Just tried smoking a CBD joint, again. God, it's awful. Clear and direct legalization of THC containing cannabis is a must, otherwise all that Delta8/HHC/whatever chemically treated bud you can think of will be a major health issue everywhere.

Yeah, I think people forget that the definition of a weed is simply "A plant that is unwanted." Himalayan blackberry in the PNW is often a weed and it grows aggressively in a lot of backyards here, but lots of people keep it around because... blackberries.

What would this sort of gardening/lawn care be called if I wanted to find more concrete explanations and details towards achieving your own ecosystem

Three of my favorite things: weed, environmentalism and sonic. 10/10 memery my dear lemmite.