Don’t get caught up in all the horror talk about weeding. It’s not bad at all. I enjoy it (me—with my childhood garden experience!); it may even be habit-forming, in which case there’s a danger you’ll have the urge to weed and there’ll be no weeds left. Imagine that predicament!
There are one or two things about weeds that it pays to remember. The bad news is that, unchecked, they increase year by year—annual weeds by seed, perennial weeds by seed plus many vegetative means. Weeds may be Nature’s mulch, as a determined nonweeder once put it, but they’re greedy mulches, with roots that will get more than a fair share of the moisture and nutrients your chosen plants need.
The good news is that as you garden—sensibly—there will be fewer and fewer weeds each year. Any gardener who has worked on a piece of ground for a number of years will confirm that.
New gardeners often get a flourishing crop of weeds in their flower beds because they can’t distinguish between germinating weeds and flower plants. You’ll learn a lot from observation and experience, but it’s a good idea to find a book and get familiar with a few of the villainous weeds in your area. If your neighbors are experienced gardeners, they will be glad to identify some of them for you.
The trick with annual weeds is to catch them before they set seed: “One year’s seeding, seven years weeding,” as the old adage has it. Hoe or “scuffle” them up while they’re young and small, and they’ll wither and die on the soil’s surface. Don’t do this in rain because anything left lying on the surface will reroot.
Among perennial weeds, dandelion and dock are probably on every gardener’s Most Wanted list. Both have strong, deep taproots, and you must dig deeply enough to get the whole thing or your efforts will be wasted. In tight corners and among stones, the deep weeder hand tool is effective on these and other taprooted weeds. Remember that any weed, annual or perennial, is easily destroyed when it is young. So when you spot one, no matter how small, don’t delay.
A friend of mine who had a full-time job, as well as what should have been a full-time garden, told me she began by making herself pull six weeds as she left the house each morning. In a few days’ time she was pulling twenty or thirty, and found it so compelling that she could hardly stop. She swears she enjoyed it.
I don’t like to use weed killers, although I understand, of course, that there are situations that may warrant their use. Poison ivy in a garden or play area would justify it, I imagine. At all costs, avoid indiscriminate spraying with all-purpose, kill-everything chemicals. Be selective. Be conservative. And be careful.
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