Want to learn how to keep weeds out of the garden? Believe it or not, it can be done.
Anyone with experience in the garden knows that gardening is just another word for weeding. In other words, weeding is just part of the gardening process. There is little you can do to avoid weeds altogether. However, there is plenty that you can do to mitigate how frequently the weeds grow and in what areas they put down roots.
If you are struggling with weeds in your yard, look no further. Below you will find a comprehensive guide that focuses on ten tips you can try out to mitigate weed growth in your garden.
What Causes Weeds in the Garden?
Weeds grow in the garden for all the same reasons your fruits and vegetables grow. They are opportunistic plants that take advantage of favorable growing conditions like temperature, soil moisture, nutrients, and minerals.
If there is space for weeds, along with sunlight, water, and productive soil, weeds will grow no matter what. When weeds grow, they can produce thousands of seeds per plant. There are three types of weeds:
- Annual Weeds: these weeds spread by setting their seed and germinating quickly, only growing for a single season before dying off.
- Biennial Weeds: biennial weeds live for two years. In the first year, the seed germinates and produces a leafy plant. In the second year, the plant flowers and spreads its seeds.
- Perennial Weeds: these weeds grow for multiple seasons. They spread by setting seeds and growing from their roots.
There are a few things to know about weeds:
Classes of Weeds
Taproot – some weeds have a long center root, a bit like a carrot. It has smaller roots growing off from it. If you break off the root at or near ground level it will often just grow right back. You need to try to get the whole root out. A dandelion is a good example of this type of weed.
Runners – Some weeds have runners and grow in all directions at once. They will put out the runners (rhizomes) above ground and underground. If you pull up one of the runners all the others will still live on happily. If you cut it up in pieces (say with a tiller) each of the pieces will start a new plant. Alas, poison ivy is a runner type of weed. So is bermudagrass.
Natural Ways to Get Rid of Garden Weeds
In the quest to keep the landscape weed-free, it’s easy to make some overzealous mistakes. Before trying your hand at getting rid of weeds, read on for the right way to vanquish the green invaders and reduce their future growth. A bountiful vegetable harvest, big beautiful flowers, and more time to relax will be the happy result.
1. Don’t wait to weed.
If you let weeds tower over your tomatoes, you’ll have a tough time getting them out. When weeds are small, their roots are weaker, making it easier to pull them out. Commit to doing a quick walk-through of your garden every other day; it will take only a few minutes to pull up any young weeds that show up.
2. Grab by the base and pull out the roots.
Gardeners who weed manually may be tempted to reach down and snatch a handful and give it a sharp tug. Unfortunately, that often causes the weed to snap in two, leaving the bottom half and the roots still in the ground. Instead, take your time and grab each weed individually at its base and then pull slowly and steadily to ease the roots from the soil.
The trick is to figure out how to pull weeds without pulling a back muscle. Bending over while standing can strain the back, making it feel as though lifting a heavy item. Try kneeling, sitting on the ground, or even bringing a small portable stool to the spot for more comfortable weed-pulling.
3. Mulch
Straw, hay, wood chips, grass clippings, leaves, and pine needles. Make sure you put down a nice thick layer. This helps keep away weeds, moderates temperatures, holds in moisture, limits evaporation, and reduces splash on plant leaves keeping them cleaner and reducing fungi. As a bonus mulch naturally composts in place putting humus back into the soil.
4. Newspapers
Put down a thick layer of newspaper on top of your soil. You will need to add a thin layer of mulch to keep it in place, but newspaper is a great weed barrier. Prepare your beds, put your compost on, and your worm castings then put your soaker hose down before you put your newspaper down.
Put your mulch on top to hold down your paper. That ensures your plants get watered, but the weed seeds that land on top, don’t. Then just tear a small hole in the paper where you want to place a plant or seed. By the end of the season, it will mostly be decomposed and it too will add humus to your soil.
5. Avoid Watering Weeds
If you can water only the plants that need it, you may avoid the cultivation of weeds in unplanted areas, paths, and areas where they are not welcome—and where they would dry up if not watered!
6. Vinegar
Plants don’t like vinegar. You can put vinegar into a spray bottle and using a dog cone to isolate the weed you wish to get rid of, spray just the weed. The vinegar will kill it clear down to the root, though you may need to reapply to kill the very strong and persistent weeds. Make sure it doesn’t get on your prize tomato plant though as it doesn’t discriminate between the plants you like and the plants you don’t.
Tip: Vinegar works best in the bright sunlight. It causes the leaves of the plant to dehydrate in the hot sun.