You’ve spent days and weeks getting your flowers, herbs and vegetables planted for the season. Now you sit back and wait for those lovely plants to grow.
And then you notice something else growing in your garden. Not just one or two but dozens and dozens of them. Weeds are sprouting everywhere. Give them a little water and they grow, well like weeds. Fast and out of control.
Weeds are one of the most common problems we face in the garden. Many gardeners will give up on their beds when they become overgrown with weeds. They steal the nourishment and water away from our treasured plants. Leaving our flowers and vegetables struggling to grow.
You need a plan of action to control the weeds in your garden, before they have a chance to take over. Here are some ways to combat the weeds and give your flowers, herbs, and vegetables a fighting chance.
In order to control weeds in your garden, you’ll want to first prevent them from growing and then eliminate the ones that sprout.
Prevent Weeds From Growing
Start with a covering
The best way to fight weeds is to prevent them from sprouting in the first place. One way to stop the weeds from growing is to cover the ground with a barrier that minimizes sunlight. Here are several options to try:
- Cover the soil with a solid barrier such as landscape fabric. Place it so that it covers all the areas that aren’t going to be growing plants. Heavy-duty landscape fabric can last for many years. We’ve had success in our vegetable garden by laying it over the growing area and then cutting holes to space the vegetables apart.
- You can cover the ground with cardboard pieces that go around your plants or line your walkways with cardboard before covering with mulch.
- Use multiple layers of newspaper or paper bags around your plants. Top the paper with a 1-2 inch layer of mulch to hold it in place.
- Another option would be to cover the ground with a thick layer of organic matter to block the sunlight. This could be pine needles, chopped leaves, straw, grass, or shredded bark. Be careful to use weed-seed free options or you can increase the risk of weeds.
- For pathways, line with a barrier and cover with pebbles, rocks, or wood chips.
Layer on the mulch
After you’ve planted your crops add another layer of nourishing mulch such as compost or aged steer manure around your plants. This top-dressing will not only act as a barrier to weed growth but provides valuable nutrients to help support plant growth. Periodically replenish this mulch as the season progresses to continue to feed your plants and block the growth of weeds where it matters most…at the base of your plants.
Grow a ground-cover
Another way to prevent weeds in the first place is to minimize the growing opportunities. In areas where you’re not going to be frequently moving plants such as a perennial flower bed, consider planting low-growing ground cover. Here are a few examples:
- Moss
- Alyssum
- Creeping Phlox
- Low-growing grasses
- Creeping Thyme
Be careful to choose low-lying ground cover that spreads slowly but won’t take over. You’ll want to avoid ground covers that can spread quickly and crowd out the plants you want to grow…vinca comes to mind.
Grow plants closer together
When you grow your plants closer together, you reduce sunlight to the soil and this can help reduce seed germination. How close will depend on the plant. If you’re growing perennial shrubs in your flower border you’ll need to give them room to spread. This is the same with your vegetable garden. But in a cut flower garden you can plant the flowers a little closer together.
Don’t turn your soil
If you’re planting a vegetable or annual flower bed, consider only digging the soil for your planting hole or row. Rather than turn the whole bed over, dig just where you are planting. This will reduce the opportunity for weed seeds to germinate.
If you have an established bed where you’ve amended the soil properly, this would be a good option. For a new bed, it might take a season or two to create nice, crumbly soil. But once you do, you can stop turning the whole bed over each season.
Eliminate the Weeds That Sprout
Be consistent with removing weeds
The second part of controlling weeds is to eliminate them. Even with these preventative techniques, you will end up with some weeds in your garden. To keep them to a minimum, spend regular time on weed control. Weeds are so much easier to control when they’re small. For areas not covered by a barrier or mulch, use a hoe to quickly remove tiny weeds. See the tool list below for the best options.
For weeds that are growing at the base of your plants, you’ll need to hand remove these. Make sure to get all the root of your weeds when pulling them. Some weeds can continue to grow if you leave the roots behind.
All it takes is a few minutes per plant once a week to keep weeds under control. Create a routine where you work for 10-15 minutes each day to remove these offenders.
If you notice a problem area where the weeds have gotten out of control, consider adding another layer of water-permeable fabric or additional mulch to slow the growth. You can also gather the troops aka your kids and grandkids to help clear the area of weeds in one fell swoop.
Related: How to Create a Beautiful Garden in 30 Minutes a Day
Deadhead your spent flowers
Sometimes our ‘weeds’ are actually flowers that we allowed to go to seed the previous season. Some flowers and herbs are notorious for reseeding. Removing the flower heads before they go to seed can save you hours of weeding in subsequent years. Another perk of deadheading is that it keeps your flowers blooming all season long. Here are a few common offenders to watch out for:
- Bachelor Buttons
- Black-eyed Susans
- Borage
- Cosmos
- Feverfew
- Holly Hocks
- Marigold
- Poppies
- Salvia
- Shasta Daisies
Water only your plants not the weeds
Weeds need water to grow. If you can reduce the water to those plants you’ll reduce weed growth. Watering your flower and vegetable gardens with soaker hoses or drip lines instead of overhead can limit water to the weeds.
Kill the weeds with organic options
Although we want weed-free gardens, it’s not a good idea to use chemicals to kill your weeds. Those chemicals can remain in the environment and harm pollinators such as bees and butterflies. They can also harm your pets, as well as the wildlife that we want to encourage, such as birds.
A couple of safe options to try would be hot water and vinegar. You can pour boiling water directly onto the weeds and this will often kill the plant. Strong vinegar will also kill the weeds but it needs to be sprayed directly onto the base of the plant. Keep in mind that vinegar will also kill the plants you want to keep, so be careful to just use it on the weeds. Spraying dandelions in your grass might leave you with some areas of dead grass for example.
Your household (5%) vinegar is not as strong as agricultural (30%+) vinegar. If using household vinegar, you might need to treat the weeds a few times for the best results.
Tool List
…To Help You Control Weeds in Your Garden
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Here are a few tools that you might find helpful in your battle with the weeds. They can make your job easier.
Keeping our gardens weed-free can sometimes feel like an ongoing battle. Weeds seem to grow faster than the speed of light and it’s so discouraging when they grow out-of-control almost overnight. But with the right plan, you can hit the weeds with a one-two punch that keeps them from taking over. Now sit back, relax, and enjoy the beauty of your garden without the overwhelming weeds that usually follow.