Organic Gardener

Weed Control

Weeds are often hard to identify in a garden and can broadly be classified as invasive plants which grow in unwanted locations.

Weeds are normally aggressive in nature and can quickly over run areas of the garden if left unattended. Weeds can also become serious threats to natural flora and fauna if they gain footholds in the environment at large

Preventing weeds

Adopting practices such as close planting, reduced digging and smarter watering practices can reduce the chance of unwanted weeds appearing in your garden.

Other methods include:

• Rotating vegetable crops: As crops differ in their ability to compete with weeds rotating crops between hardy competitors and weeker plants can reduce weeds.
• Transplants: Give your plants a head start on weeds by utilizing transplanted seedlings instead of sowing seeds.
• Path Weeds: Placing a barrier down before paving can prevent weeds growing up through cracks, as cal dusting the cracks with powdered cement.
• Ground cover: Mulching and other forms of ground cover are among the most effective organic weed control methods available. Excluding light from the soil reduces the weeds ability to germinate.

Clearing weeds

Several environmentally friendly methods exist for clearing weeds from your garden. Some require more effort than others but removing weeds can be done without resorting to harmful chemical herbicides.

Removing by hand
This is often a time consuming process however removing weeds by hand allows you to be selective about what is removed. Hand weed ing is most effective after recent rain when the soil is loosened and allows the removal of root systems with the plant.

Hoeing
Effective for large patches of newly cleared ground. relatively quick and especially suited for removing the tops from perennial weeds.

Thermal weeding
Thermal weeding involves directing a short blast of heat directly onto the offending weed causing it to wilt and die. Especially suited for paths and driveways where devices such as steam and gas operated devices work the best.

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