Hamlet is comparing humanity to the things growing in an unweeded garden that grows to seed. Such neglected gardens are commonly seen where houses have been standing vacant for a long time. Hamlet says that things rank and gross possess them merely.
Fie on't! ah, fie! 'tis an unweeded garden
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely.
There is a distinct difference between "rank" and "gross." Ornamental vegetation that is rank is overgrown, choked, entangled. Lawns will become rank if they are not regularly mowed. They are an ugly sight. It is unusual for a poet to create ugly imagery as a metaphor to represent an ugly condition. The rank vegetation represents the ugliness that Hamlet sees in ordinary men. Growths in neglected gardens that can be called "gross" are not rank but stand out separately, towering over the rest. Milkweeds are a common sight in neglected gardens. They are tall, ugly, misshapen, grotesque. They seem to flaunt their ugliness. They bear flowers, but the flowers are colorless, ugly and randomly placed on the crooked stalks. Hamlet might have been thinking of King Claudius as one of the "gross" specimens of humanity.
Most people would probably not stop and spend time looking at an unweeded garden that grows to seed. They are depressing spectacles, but Shakespeare obviously appreciated them as lessons from reality and as potential metaphors and similes. He was not solely interested in pretty sights or in creating aesthetically pleasing imagery. He was more interested in expressing truth than in flattering nature. Some of his characters are beautiful examples of ugly people, including Iago, Caliban, Edmund, Regan, and Polonius. These characters are "gross." Characters like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern might be considered "rank." There are two of them but they seem like Siamese twins.
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