How to keep weeds at bay?

[DeenyB]

2 weeks ago the dc and i weeded the entire garden. (boy was that a job)!!!
Now they are coming back with a vengence. Looks like I will be weeding again this week :(
Dh says his mom used to put grass clippings in there to keep the weeds down, but with the weather being so dry, I am only mowing every couple weeks. So no grass clippings.

Does anyone have any good tips or tricks?

[Macky]

:haha

If you're only weeding every two weeks, consider yourself lucky. Here's the deal with weeds.

Mulch - grass clippings, straw, whatever - will only squelch annual weeds. Why? Most annual weed seeds need light to germinate. Every time you disturb the soil, you bring dormant weed seeds to the surface where they can germinate. You can use one of two attacks here. 1) Use a light hoe regularly, right at the time the little weeds are barely breaking through the soil, and slide the hoe juuuust under the surface of the soil, so as not to expose as many new seeds. 2) Cultivate or hoe deeply and regularly to purposely expose and germinate as many weed seeds as possible. The more that germinate, the more you can slice with the hoe and the less weed seeds remain in the soil over time.

If you have perennial weeds (most people fight dandelion and thistle around here), you have to get yourself either chemicals or a good thin spade to dig up the ENTIRE root and resign yourself to doing so for years to come, unless you have a really small plot. Btw, those dandelion puller gadgets are useless if you're like me and have roots over a foot long that are thicker than your thumb. Mulch - even plastic or landscaping fabric - will NOT smother perennial weeds, which have enough energy stored in their roots for many, many, many attempts at poking their way through.

Good luck. Have more kids for slave labour. :)

[Jeanette598]

Mulch - even plastic or landscaping fabric - will NOT smother perennial weeds, which have enough energy stored in their roots for many, many, many attempts at poking their way through.


Aha. That explains it! I put down ten bags of mulch in our flowerbeds this spring and everything was fine until a few weeks ago when weeds popped out all over. Sigh.

[Macky]

And then the mulch makes it harder to get at the weed's root - that's the kicker. :yes2

[tempus vernum]

I was impressed you were only weeding every 2 weeks too :giggle

[tempus vernum]

Thought of this thread when I thought about something I am going to do on my paths because they are SO SO SO weedy - I am hoping to get burlap sacks to lay down and am thinking of putting straw on top of them. I get my burlap sacks free from a large coffee place in the area :) It works nicely if you put down 2 layers and I think Mulch would help too. It won't work forever but it WILL keep most things from coming through for a year or so before it grows through. And of course, if you plant things closely together, this won't work ;) .