Managing weeds in your home's flower beds can seem like an ongoing battle with you often on the losing end. The key isn't to battle harder, but to work smarter. Making some minor changes to your landscape can help you overcome the weeds once and fore all, or at least bring the issue to a more manageable level.
#1: Start with a clean slate
It's much easier to remain weed-free than it is to fight the weeds. To this end, begin by removing all weeds from the garden bed. If it is a new bed, you can achieve this by using a combination of pre- and post-emergent herbicides several weeks before planting. If the bed is already planted and you don't want to start over, you may need to resign yourself to pulling all the weeds – including the roots – by hand, and then continuing to do so until all seeds have sprouted. It can take a couple of growing seasons to see progress.
#2: Create a barrier
Unless you are starting with guaranteed weed seed-free soil, there is a chance of weed growth in any garden bed. To combat this, lay landscape fabric over the soil. This prevents seeds from germinating, as well as keeps fresh seed from blowing in. You simply cut a hole where ever you want to plant a desired plant. Landscape fabric can last for years in the garden, so it is well worth the expense of installation.
#3: Stop all encroachment
A lot of times weeds encroach on flower beds from the edges. Lawn grass is especially guilty of this. Edging is the best way to solve this dilemma. You can use nearly any type of edging, such as the vinyl strips, but concrete curbing looks the best and is one of the most effective. The base of the curbing extends several inches below grade, which prevents grass and weed roots from growing under the edging. The raised lip of the curbing keeps plants from growing over the top. Most concrete curbing designs also provide a wide strip around the base, which further distances lawn grasses from the garden bed.
#4: Harness the power of mulch
Once your bed is weeded and edged, the next step is to keep out future weeds by using mulch. A 2 to 3 inch layer of wood chips or pine straw smothers out any weeds that still manage to breach the landscape fabric. It even works in beds that don't have fabric. Just make sure to replenish the mulch yearly, as it will naturally decompose.
For more information, visit a website such as ALPINECURBING.COM.
Share27 September 2017
Hello, I’m Donna. Welcome. I am excited to share my passion for landscaping with you all. I regularly change the layout of my garden, depending on the plants I want to grow each year. I keep my garden beds full of flowers and edible plants to have a variety of vegetation to enjoy. I would like to use this site to cover all of those varieties and talk about the growing techniques and supplies that work best for each option. I invite you to visit daily to learn the information you need to help your garden grow. Thanks for visiting my site.