Controlling Weeds Garden Nursery Landscaping Guide
Controlling Weeds Without Nasty Chemicals
By Joel F Mornigstar
Controlling weeds without chemicals is essential, if you wish
to keep your organic garden free of chemicals, including herbicides
and pesticides. By keeping your eyes open, you can see when weeds
are starting to sprout and you can pull them out, before they
grow too big. Another option is to purchase weed control fabric
and mulch from your local nursery. This method will prevent many
weeds from sprouting.
Weeds are a pest and if you let them take over your garden, then
your garden plants will have to compete against them for nutrients
in order to grow. Some weeds may even be poisonous against your
plants. This is why you need to make efforts to control the weeds
in your garden, without the use of toxic chemicals.
Protecting Yourself With Garden Gloves
When you work in your garden, you should always wear garden gloves,
especially when you are making efforts to control weeds, as some
of the weeds may be poisonous to your skin and to other plants
in your garden. Just like a doctor wears surgical gloves before
he performs a medical procedure, you should always wear garden
gloves every time you are in the garden.
Protecting yourself against nasty weeds, is one of the basic
steps you can take when controlling weeds.
Unsightly Weeds In Your Garden
If you have a garden of any size, you probably do not look forward
to pulling the inevitable yearly crop of weeds. Not only are they
unsightly, but weeds leach valuable nutrients from your desirable
landscape plants. Out of sheer frustration, you may be tempted
to exterminate them with a commercial herbicide.
However, your conscience may be pricked with the nagging knowledge
that you’re putting poisonous chemicals into your garden, contributing
to further degradation of our common environment.
Nevertheless, you’ve got to get a handle on controlling weeds
if you’re to have an attractive garden of flourishing plants.
While weeds are the gardener’s bane, there is a practical solution
which doesn’t harm the environment or pose a potential threat
to kids and pets.
Reducing Your Weed Problem
This solution to controlling weeds takes discipline, patience
and persistence, but does not necessarily involve a great deal
of time out of your daily schedule. Of course, you’ll never completely
eradicate these garden parasites – an afternoon breeze can bring
a new flock from across the road to do their thing: sprouting
and growing into new weeds. However, there are a number of techniques
you can employ to minimize the weed problem.
Most landscaping designs include trees, shrubs and perennial
plantings, such as rose bushes and ornamentals. In between these
plantings, you’ll most likely have bare ground, a perfect breeding
place for weeds. There are a couple of attractive ways to controlling
weeds in this situation.
Weed Control Fabric Covered With Mulch
You can use weed control fabric, available at any nursery in
rolls you can cut to size. Weed control fabric consists of closely
and finely woven, usually nylon, netting. This effectively captures
the heat of the sun and smothers the wannabe weeds. However, you
do want to leave the ground around the plant’s drip line uncovered,
both for watering and feeding.
A generous 3 inch layer of mulch, such as redwood chips, is another
effective weed killer. You can also combine the two, using the
weed control fabric as the base, and covering the fabric with
the mulching material. Either of these two methods – the combination
works best – can cut your weeding tasks significantly.
Applying Mulch On Flower Beds
For flower beds, it’s not usually practical to fit weed control
fabric in between each plant, but you can easily mulch those beds.
Mulching provides a unified look to the garden and also makes
it easy to spot any vagrant weeds which may pop up.
With just these few steps, your remaining efforts in controlling
weeds are minimal. For the few areas of your garden still vulnerable
to weeds, you can spend perhaps an hour each week, pulling out
the few weeds that make it to the seedling stage. Here’s a great
idea, especially if you’re short on time. Get the kids involved,
offering a bounty for every bucket of weeds they collect. They’ll
be happy with what amounts to additional allowance money.
Creeping Thyme Helping To Control Weeds On Pathways
Another place weeds tend to crop up is between paving stones
on pathways. Controlling weeds here can be a tedious chore, as
some weeds seem to appear just at the edge of the stones, hiding
their roots underneath. One elegant solution is to plant a low-growing
ground cover, such as creeping thyme, between the stones. This
makes a fragrant and lovely solution.
Whenever you pull up a weed, never ever dump it in with your
compost or leave it to dry where pulled. These dead weeds will
eventually show up – at least some of them – in your now almost
weed-free garden. Bag them up in a plastic garden trash bag and
let them cook! Then haul them off to a disposal site. Controlling
weeds is not so difficult or time consuming after all!
Making It Easier For Your Garden To Retain Nutrients
By using these steps to control weeds, you are making it easier
to grow plants in your garden and flower beds. Helping your plants
retain the nutrients, rather than being stolen by intruders like
weeds. You are then rewarded for your efforts, with pesticide
and chemical free vegetables, fruit and herbs, helping to enrich
your meals in the family home.
If you have been eating fruit and vegetable bought from the food
store, you may start to realise all the taste and flavours you
have been missing once you start eating organic produce grown
in your garden. You may have not realised what these fruit really
taste like, as many fruit and vegetables are treated with chemicals
in farms.
Grow Your Own Organic Fruit, Vegetables And Herbs
Although you can buy certified organic fruit and vegetables in
many food stores, you will feel you have made the effort to control
the weeds in your garden, and therefore you do not need to buy
as much organic produce, by growing your own organic produce in
your garden.
After all, when you are taking your time to ensure everything
grows chemical free, then you do not need to use chemicals for
controlling weeds.
About the Author:
Joel F Morningstar has written a number of articles on gardening
and landscaping including Remodeling
Contractors, General
Contractor, Construction
Remodeling, Find
A Contractor, Home
Improvement, Home
Improvement Services, Improvement
Services, Local
Contractors, Backyard
Landscaping, Front
Yard Landscape, Stone
Walkway, Deck
Ideas, Patio
Garden, Design
Landscaping, Lawn
Care, Lawn
Garden.
Keep a lookout for more of his articles on this website.
Little Known Landscaping Facts....
When should I hire a landscaper?
You should hire a landscaper
if you do not have a “green thumb” and you are not
going to have the time to devote to removing the old
landscape and planting the new. There are certain steps
that must be put into place to prevent soil erosion so
it will require at least a weekend of hard work.
Landscaper’s are not cheap but you can find one at a reasonable
price depending on how large the area is and how much labor you
intend to do yourself. If you are going to maintain the area,
you will save money as well.
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