Controlling Weeds

In most community gardens, weeds are a problem. Gardeners need to weed their plots and pathways to prevent weeds from taking over. This will also make your plants and fellow gardeners happy. In some cases, gardeners cannot tell the difference between a weed and a plant, making them afraid to pull up the wrong thing. This can be alleviated by doing a little research and finding pictures of the plants in your garden at various stages. If gardeners do not weed, the weeds will take over and rob valuable resources from your plants such as space, sun, water and nutrients.

• Identify your weeds: Checkout this site to identify weeds found in your area.

• A thorough weeding early in the season can save a lot of work later on.

• Get rid of grass and weeds before you plant – do not rototill them under. Use newspaper, cardboard or a black tarp to kill these plants first. Another method is to turn the soil with a digging fork – break-up the dirt and remove any roots found.

• When mowing around or near the garden, be sure to blow debris away from the garden bed.

• Remove weeds as soon as you see them. Watering the garden a few hours before you pull weeds will make it easier.

• Add cedar or straw mulch between the rows of plants or use green mulch by growing clover between your rows.

• Remove all seeds from the weeds and do not add them to the compost.

• Mulching helps cut down the weeds in your garden and helps reduce the amount of watering required. You can use a variety of mulching materials or consider using ground covers to cover open dirt space and keep weeds down.