Keeping your Backyard Free of Weeds
It does not matter what climate you live in, what type of garden you may have, or how much time and energy you may possess; weeds are every homeowner’s nemesis!
There are an endless number of websites on the internet offering solutions to weed-control ranging from chemicals to green-gardening to simply getting down and dirty with your hoe every week. The type of weed control is ultimately up to the gardener but there are some preventive techniques gardeners of all styles do before planting the flowers and shrubs.
When you have the ideal garden location figured out and it is time to start digging, till up the ground (spraying a chemical a few days prior to gardening should help kill the roots and seeds if that’s the method you want to take), and lay down stacks of 6-10 sheets of black and white newspaper above the dirt. This will keep the sunlight from helping those pesky weeds spread and also it is biodegradable and provides the dirt with good nutrients.
If you would like something more permanent, any garden center will sell black plastic or cloth sheets that can be cut and placed under the mulch. They also will be happy to sell you a border to go around your garden to help keep the horizontal growing weeds and grasses from spreading. A following layer of newspaper and mulch, layered on thick, will help hold the water in and weeds out, and provide nutrients to the soil. For vegetable gardens, consider using straw instead of a wood bark mulch.
In between weeding if you notice a small, young weed pop up here and there, feel free to spray a little vinegar (any kind) or pour boiling water directly on the weed base. Be careful not to spray on the plants you want to keep alive. Another home-remedy, so long as you do not plan to plant anything in the dirt for many months, is to sprinkle salt on the weeds. This works best on the cracks in the driveway since you hardly ever want anything growing in those cracks.
It is important to know what types of weeds you have growing in order to successfully destroy them. Some weeds are annuals and some perennials; some grow from the seeds of others; and some weeds are part of the grass family. When you are dealing with weeds that are grasses, you do not want to spray an herbicide that you would also use on your yard because those are made to kill the weeds and not the grass. The grass that sneaks into your garden will love being sprayed with that, and grow to be a bigger nuisance than before. If you have lots of weeds that grow and spread by seed, and you aren’t growing any vegetables or plants by seed, it can help to sprinkle the dirt with corn meal gluten or any other product that prevents seed germination.
Amidst this war you are waging, keep in mind that the weeds are just doing what all plants do. They do not understand why they are so undesirable, and they are not consciously trying to give you an ulcer. If you spend the time and energy into starting your garden off on the right foot, the weeds in your garden will become much more manageable for years to come.
