Focus on weed prevention in your garden

By Christine Schlueter
rcschlueter@yahoo.com

Date Modified: 05/19/2010 3:37 PM

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Focus on weed prevention rather than control in a new garden. Avoid introducing weeds by checking containerized plants carefully when purchasing them to ensure they are weed-free. When buying compost, manure, or topsoil, ask if it has been properly composted to reach between 140 F and 150 F.

Design new plantings so that weeds don't have room to get established. The plants you want will flourish and weeds will have no place to grow. Native plants are well adapted to local conditions and they compete well against weeds. Use groundcovers, trees, and shrubs to shade the ground so weeds won't grow beneath them. Underplant new trees and shrubs with fast-growing annuals like sweet alyssum to crowd out weeds.

Sometimes the best way to control a weed is to pull it. Hand-pulling is effective for annual weeds, but get them before they set seed and when the ground is moist. Use a collinear hoe to scrape the tops off annual weeds at ground level. Use a hula hoe (also called a stirrup hoe) or dandelion knife to chop weedy grasses out just below the soil surface. Use a mower or tiller to remove the above-ground growth of perennials.

Soil solarization is a good method in sunny gardens to rid beds and other areas of perennial weeds before planting.

It takes four to six weeks for solarization to kill pest nematodes and plant-disease pathogens as well as weeds. To solarize, cultivate the soil, water it, then cover the area with a thin sheet of transparent plastic. Hold the plastic in place by digging a trench and burying the edges. In cooler areas, you can increase the effectiveness by using two sheets of plastic. Solarization doesn't in perpetually shady areas.

Hand-held weed flamers — small tanks of propane with a wand that produces a flame are available. It's best to flame broadleaf annual weeds when they are 1 to 2 inches high, but flaming can also be effective at killing grasses and perennial weeds in some circumstances.

In addition to flame weeders, new, portable, propane-powered, flameless radiant heaters are good killers. A hot ceramic surface kills foliage, and a red-hot spike can be pushed into the ground to kill perennial roots.

If I am boiling water in the kitchen I will make extra and pour it on weeds in cracks in the pathway. This is a good way to use up your canning water.

Flaming and other thermal methods of control can kill many weeds and grasses, but several treatments may be needed. The first application of heat may cause the plant to die back, but if the roots aren't killed, it will resprout. Treat the weed again before photosynthesis resupplies the plant. Even resistant mature perennial weeds like quack grass and Canada thistle can be killed with repeated heating or flaming.

If you remember to mulch in the beginning when your plants are just big enough, it will greatly reduce weeding. If using bark mulch you can apply it about three or so inches, taking care not to mound too much around the plant. Pull the weeds and get them out of the garden.

Don't get stressed about the weeds, gardening is meant to relieve stress, not create it.

Keep those questions and comments coming by sending to Christine Schlueter, 19276 Walden Ave, Hutchinson MN 55350 or email rcschlueter@yahoo.com