One of the most important things we can do in our gardens is to keep weeds out of our garden beds. Weeds can crowd plants and force them to compete for water and nutrients. When a plant is “fighting” to stay alive, they have less energy to put towards things like growing and blooming.
Weeds can also provide a hiding place for insects and cut down on light or air circulation which is essential to minimize the risk of diseases, especially fungus..
What is a Weed?
A weed is ANYTHING growing where it doesn’t belong. A rosebush in your driveway could be considered a weed. In my backyard, dandelions, wild violets and clover are NOT considered weeds because they feed pollinators. In my vegetable and flower gardens, they are.
How to Keep Weeds Out–Chemical Free
Make sure your garden area is weed-free before you plant. You can spread a tarp over the area a couple of weeks before planting. This will cut off sunlight to the weeds there and help hasten their demise.
Once you plant, mulch your garden. Do check the pH of your soil before applying pine bark mulch as it can acidify the soil slightly.
Leaves are a good mulch, but it’s best to shred them with your mower first. Whole leaves can cling together when they get wet and actually mat down and keep the soil too moist.
Newspapers work great as mulch, but you might want to top with an inch or two of bark mulch for looks.
Grass clippings are okay used as mulch. Just DON’T use clippings from lawns where you’ve applied weed killers or weed preventers.
How to Get Rid of Tough Weeds
Pour boiling water over tough weeds to get the roots. Just don’t go too close to “wanted” plants.
You can also “flame weed” them. My neighbor has a flame weeder and it seems to be very effective. You should only use it on well-watered gardens, you should not use it too close to your flowers or veggies, and you need to have a hose nearby.
Believe it or not, some of your weeds you can actually eat! Dandelions and wild violets are edible. So are a number of other weeds. Just be sure to identify them first.
One Ancient Piece of Advice
An ancient Chinese proverb says “The best fertilizer is the shadow of the gardener.” How true! What better way to get close than hand-pulling your weeds? Then you can turn over the occasional leaf on that vegetable plant to check for insect eggs, appreciate the delicate beauty of that first baby cucumber or first flower bud on your geraniums. (Hint–watering your garden first makes the weeds easier to pull).
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