Weeds, weeds, weeds
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Posted: May/19/2008 10:03 PM PST
Please help, I am losing my mind!!!  I love gardening, but I hate weeding. Is there anything that can be done for the weeds? I must say to begin with, I don't mulch. I have put compost in my veggie and flower garden but that's it. I have heard conflicting information as to whether or not to mulch in the veggie garden and what to use in the flower garden, so I don't use anything other than compost. I have been told that these weeds are called "chickweeds" and they are hard to get rid of. That is the truth!! The weeds seem to be growing as fast as the plant!! I live in Maryland and I have tried Preen but that stuff didn't do anything but feed the weeds!!LOL |
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Posted: May/20/2008 7:01 PM PST
If you don't want to pull, you can always use an herbicide  I personally just accept weeding as a part of gardening, with some weeds being easier to control than others. My main enemy is bermuda grass. Try weeding after a rain. I have found that even difficult-to-pull weeds come up easier in moist soil
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Posted: May/21/2008 12:42 AM PST
check my screenname it says it all. I am already at my witts end with weeds and it is only middle of spring. They seem to have won the battle and seem to have invaded my beautiful new herb garden that I spent two months creating even with extremely heavy mulching. If you use a herbacide does it kill the already existing herbs also? Does it contaminate the vegetables as well? |
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Posted: May/21/2008 5:19 AM PST
Yes, you have to be very careful with herbicides. We won't get into my husband and his happy sprayer right now. That's another story that I must tell! I try to mulch my beds and vegetable garden with pine straw. It does a pretty good job of keeping most of the weeds down. |
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Posted: May/23/2008 10:27 AM PST
OK, thanks. Does Pine straw work for weeds that are already there? I can pull weeds for hours and still find a few under the surface. It seems impossible to pull all the weeds up, particularly the deep rooted ones. I have some veggies planted (spinach, romaine lettuce, garlic, tomatoes and kale) and more to plant (orka, more tomatoes, pole beans, cucumbers). Is it too late to apply mulch?? Can mulch be applied to container plants such as carrots, cantaloupes and collards? |
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Posted: May/24/2008 4:25 AM PST
For natural weed control in the veggie garden, I have used a planting method I think is called 'french intensive planting'. Instead of rows you plant in hexagons - the plants then form a canopy once they are established and nothing can grow well between them. Really works well AND you can get a LOT more planted in a smaller space. The trick is to loosen the soil very deeply so roots can go DOWN not just OUT. Rodale Press The Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening is where I found it, but I am sure the concept is covered elsewhere. My DH built me raised veggie beds (4'!!) for my aching back so loosening the soil wasn't a problem, but I have veggie gardened this way since I was a little granola-head in Ithaca! |
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Posted: May/25/2008 2:40 AM PST
If you put down your mulch thick enough, the weeds can't get any sunlight and they usually die or if they do come up, they are weak and spindly. I assume that you can put any kind of mulch in a pot. I've never heard of that veggie gardening method, so I'll have to do a little research on that. |
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Posted: May/25/2008 9:41 AM PST
Kar ~ That sounds interesting! As far as the weeds... I'm like you, and I never, EVER mulched. Its embarrassing now -- because this spring I have been reading and researching a lot about the benefits of mulching and the only reason I never did it was because I did not want to deal with trying to get the autumn leaves out of the mulch... At any rate -- I have cleaned up and added a fresh layer of pine straw under one area that has rhododendrons and pine trees -- and not one weed has poked through all spring. It is also benefiting those trees by keeping the soil moderate in temperature and helping hold in the moisture with less "run off" (which I get a lot of because of the hard clay/rock soil I have. So for me -- I decided I did need to mulch. As far as what to put in veggie gardens -- I read that pine straw would be just fine -- but I'm not certain if it is "the best" -- I do know veggie gardens need a little less -- maybe 1-2 inches instead of 3-5 inches like the rest of the yard. |
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Posted: May/28/2008 10:39 AM PST
Thanks for all the good advice!! I will get to work on these weeds!! Thanks again!!
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Posted: Jun/08/2008 4:43 AM PST
I have poor soil and LOTS of weeds that actually like the poor soil. I have been amending the soil each year and as part of that - after weeding in the spring - I top the garden with peat moss. It keeps the plant roots cool and moist and keeps the weeds down for the season. The weeds that do pop up are very easy to pull also. The next spring I dig it in to amend the soil. The other thing is that I do add compost, but I think that some of the weed seeds come with the compost. |
