Best Practices for Weeding Your Garden

At the thought of weeding, do you decide you’d rather alphabetize your bookshelf or finally work through and delete the emails mounting in your inbox? Well, what if there was a better way, a way to weed without taking up so much time? Did you know that the landscape design and irrigation system of your garden can help or hinder the growth of weeds? A few tips and some landscape maintenance can go a long way in the fight against pesky weeds.

Mulch
Mulch is a very helpful tool for reducing the weeds among your plants.  When soil is nourished and happy, weeds find somewhere else to grow. Replenish the mulch often so that it remains at about 2 inches deep and dense. More than three inches is too much.

Layer the soil first with newspaper, cardboard, or other biodegradable material, then spread the mulch over the top. This keeps the light away from weed seeds so they do not grow.

Plant Spacing
This is another factor that can help the spread of weeds.  It’s simple, but you may not have given it much thought. The more space between plants, the more surface area that is available for weed seeds to proliferate.

If you’re just starting out, you must be aware of the mature size of the plants. You will need to give them space to grow. In the beginning, you may have to do a bit more maintenance, but it will be worth it later on.

Only Weed When Necessary
That sounds good, right? There are weed seeds all over your garden, but the underlying seeds can remain dormant for long periods.  If you churn up too much soil, the seeds will then come to the surface.

Use a sharp tool to localize your digging and target exact areas of soil.

The other part of this tip is to wait until the weed is 3-4 inches tall before taking it out. It is easier to get the whole weed, roots and all, when it has developed a bit longer. With a young weed, part of the root may stay in the soil, which means you’ll have to return to the same weed again later.  Double work and effort? No thanks!

Irrigation
​Just as your flowers and plants thrive with water, so do weeds! What can you do to streamline your watering? Install an irrigation system.

You can also use a hose and place it around your plants underneath the mulch to keep the soil moist while depriving nearby weeds of nourishment.

For more tips and tricks on keeping weeds at bay, irrigation installation, or irrigation repair, contact us at Graham Landscape & Design, serving Eugene, Springfield, and communities throughout the Willamette Valley in Oregon.