Get Rid of Weeds Once and For All
A friend of mine is always complaining about how much she hates gardening. I can’t understand when people hate gardening seeing I love it so much! The reason she hates it is that she equates gardening with weeding. That’s all she every does in her garden, pull out weeds. I agree that weeding can be a pain but if you follow these three tips by Mother Earth Living then weeding will become a thing of the past.
- Minimise soil disruption.
- Mulch the soil surface.
- Use drip irrigation.
Minimise soil disruption. My grandfather used to tell me to hoe the garden to aerate the soil for healthier plants. I’m always tempted to do it because it looks nice but I know from experience that it leads to more weeds. It’s better to pull out large weeds by hand and then cover the soil with a thick layer of mulch (be sure not to get the mulch too close to the base of your plants). The mulch will block out light required for the weeds to grow as well as nourishing the soil.
Mulch the soil surface. There is no doubt in my mind that the secret to a successful garden is mulch. This is especially true in somewhere like Perth where the soil is very sandy and low in nutrients. Apart from adding organic matter to the soil, mulch retains moisture and blocks out light which is a great way to stop weeds from growing. Cover crops also block out light which is a good organic way to stop weeds. Any non-invasive ground cover makes a good cover crop. One of my favourite plants is the Australian Native Violet which is perfect for this purpose.
Use Drip Irrigation. I never thought that this would be a good way to reduce weeds but it makes sense. Weeds grow on footpaths and other paved areas because they receive water from when you water your garden. If you switch to drip irrigation (which saves water) then these areas won’t get watered (except for when it rains, of course) and you’ll have fewer weeds.
These tips are easy to implement and have more benefits to your garden than just reducing or preventing weeds. They will at least give you more time to spend on the enjoyable side of gardening such as planting and harvesting vegetables - well, that’s my favourite part of gardening. I did notice that someone in the comments of that article mentioned pouring vinegar on weeds as an organic way to kill them off. I’ve never heard that before but I’ll give it a try next time I spot a weed.
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