GardenFoundation LLC
Weedin' In Eden
Judy J. Crawford

Your Best Defense Is A Good Offense!

The best way to fight weeds is to prevent them from ever getting a foothold in your garden. The first step is to deprive weeds of what they need - sunlight!

I mulch my flower beds heavily. When I'm making a new flower bed, I put down a thick layer (around 5 - 8 sheets) of black & white newspaper sections right on top of the freshly turned & amended soil. I wet the soil first, then put down the newspapers, then wet the papers. Then I put a thick mulch down on top of that. In my garden, I use compost & shredded leaves for mulch, as well as for amending my soil.

The newspapers block sunlight to the ever-present weed seeds that lay dormant in the soil. No sunlight, no germination (in most cases). In the cases where the weeds do go ahead and germinate, they usually can't push their way through the newspapers, so they soon die and decompose. Your earthworms will help the newspapers decompose, too.

Amending the soil ensures that the plants have optimum nutrients available when they start to grow right where they need it most - at the roots.

Wetting the soil and then the newspapers ensures that there's good contact between the two surfaces, helping the earthworms with their job.

Putting compost & leaf mulch on top of the newspapers helps hide them, because, let's be honest, a garden bed topped with newspapers isn't very attractive. Sometimes I put finely ground bark mulch on top of the newspapers, rather than compost, if I'm not going to be planting the bed for a while. This helps the area stay weed free until I have a chance to get busy and landscape it.

Cardboard can be used instead of newspapers, if you like.

Have A "No Bare Earth" Policy

Once you've established a semblance of control of the existing weeds by mulching your beds, the next step is to prevent new ones from establishing themselves. You can accomplish this by making sure that there is no bare dirt exposed. My preference is to cover the ground with plants.

Most shrubs, and some trees, create an environment beneath their branches that naturally controls most weeds. But what about the rest of the garden bed? The solution is simple: incorporate a variety of groundcovers (ground-hugging shrubs, perennials, ornamental grasses, and naturalizing annuals) into the area, and weeds won't be able to compete!

Go ahead and plant your shrubs directly through the newspaper & mulch. Simply dig a hole in the paper, taking care not to rip the entire mulch system into shreds beyond the planting hole. Put the plant in the hole, repack with soil, and you're done!

By covering the ground with the plants YOU want, weeds will have a tough time getting started if there are established groundcovers already present, competing for available sunlight, water, and nutrients.

Having a variety of plants in your garden beds will not only be beautiful, but it will attract beneficial insects that will help you with your battle against pests. Bio-diversity is key to a healthy garden.

Keeping the ground covered by plants helps to maintain a more constant soil temperature and moisture level, which in turn creates a healthy environment for the plants.

Never Give Up The Fight!

In order to keep your garden weed-free, you must eternally be diligent about yanking out the newcomers. It helps to follow some kind of schedule or routine, so you can ensure that the weeds never get ahead of you.

Weeds are easier to pull when the ground is wet.

You must ensure you pull out the roots, or else the weed will probably re-grow.

You must not allow weeds to go to seed, or else you are defeating your efforts.

In the newsletter section of this website I share the weeding schedule I follow in my own garden. I break up my garden into sections, and weed just one section each week. It's simply too overwhelming for me to tackle the entire garden at once.