Tackling the weeds
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
It's spring, officially, and according to Mother Nature also, so the big question is what to do first?
Take a look at your perennials. Do they have a lot of dead foliage on them still from last year? If so, cut it or pull it off. Clean up all of last years growth so the new growth will look clean and fresh.
Then get rid of all the weeds in your gardens and yes, I do know that that is no fun, but if you get all of them out now you can maintain a more-or-less weed free garden all season long. As I have just said, almost weed free. Weed control is an all summer
task, but it shouldn't be difficult or overwhelming, unless you allow it to get out of hand.
Most people fail at weed control because they never get it completely under control and so here's what you do.
First start loosening the soil and removing all the existing weeds. Then put down newspaper at least 8 pages thick and cover that with about 2" of mulch. You can also
use brown paper grocery bags, they work great!
I don't like those weed barrier fabrics that you can buy in the garden stores because, more often than not, over time it becomes a horrendous mess with weeds growing up through it. Most of the time you then cannot pull the weeds out because they are all
tangled up in the so called weed barrier material. So, what's the point of it.
That's why I like newspaper or paper bags. They go away. They biodegrade, they turn into soil. And that's really important in your gardens. Don't put things in there that won't go away. Newspaper and mulch are biodegradable, barrier fabric and such are not. They are made of a plastic material which is based on petroleum and thus... well, I think you get my take on this.
But, you say, what about all those magic weed control potions that you can buy? Do they work? Yes they do, bu the problem is that most people don't use them properly thus they get really poor results. Pre-emergent weed control products are just that, pre-emergent. That means they only control weed seeds. Controlling weed seeds is important, but if you don't have all of the existing weeds and weed roots under control first your pre-emergent weed control is doomed from the start.
So you have to completely clear out all of the existing weeds from your gardens then apply the pre-emergent weed control formulas. I still recommend the newspaper because the pre-emergent weed controls will not control weeds that come from roots left in the ground. The only way to control the weed roots from growing is to starve
them of sunlight and you do that with newspaper and mulch. If they can't get sunlight they cannot grow. It is same for weeds as it is for all other plants.
However, if you want to grow vegetables and do it – more or less – organic then you do not want weed control formulas at all and thus using suppression paper and mulch is by far the better way to go. No pollution of the soil or the food, with the possible exception of the printing ink from the newspaper.
Get rid off those weeds now – reminds me I have to get out into the garden – and the works of weed control later will be so much easier.
Do not put those weeds you uproot onto the compost heap though. You do not want them to either grow there and have those seeds blow all over your garden and you don't want dormant weed seed in your compost either. Toss the weeds into the standard trash or put them onto your burning area to be dealt with by fire.
© 2011
