Weed Control the Natural Way!

By: Janet Hartin, M.S.

One gardener’s weed is another gardener’s wildflower!

A weed is perhaps best defined as “a plant out of place.”  To your neighbors, oxalis may be a breathtaking carpet of yellow beauty, while to you it may be the bane of your existence - truly a weed! - in your own vegetable garden! 

 

However you define a weed, all gardeners agree that unwanted vegetation should be kept to a minimum since weeds usually out-compete garden plants for water and nutrients. Additionally, they will wantonly spread their seeds, provide habitat for insect pests, and may contribute to allergic reactions.

 

How can you control these unwanted freeloaders?  Prevention is the best strategy.  It is far easier and less time-consuming to keep weeds away in the first place than have to deal with them once they’ve taken up residency in your garden.  Always purchase seed packets and potting mixtures that state they are ‘weed free’ and place bird feeders away from your garden since any seeds that fall can result in quite a crop of unwanted plants.

 

Here are some additional tips to keep weeds out of your garden without using pesticides:

• Irrigate using a drip system that applies water directly into the root zone of your garden plants.  Keeping the soil around your plants dry is the easiest way to prevent weeds from germinating.
• Mulch! Apply a two to three inch layer of wood chips or decorative rocks over a layer of landscape fabric or recycled black plastic along garden paths and around plants.
• Remove weeds when they are still small by hand-weeding or digging them out.  Make sure to remove all the roots or you may end up just propagating a new crop of weeds.  There are a variety of effective weed diggers on the market that haven’t changed all that much since we were all children; in fact, instead of buying new, see what you can find at a local garage sale.  It’s a great way to recycle while meeting your neighbors!
• Avoid using pesticides in your garden.  There are products that are relatively benign that you may occasionally choose to use for pesky landscape weeds in your lawn, but it is best not to get into the habit of applying them on or around edibles.
• Sterilize your soil. Soil solarization is a lengthy but fairly straight forward process in which the weedy area (void of ‘wanted’ plants) is covered with clear 1 to 2 mil thick plastic during late the spring and summer.  The plastic super-heats moist soil by trapping solar radiation, killing soil-borne disease and nematodes as well as weeds. After three to six weeks, the plastic can be removed and garden plants added.  Six weeks is necessary to kill pesky weeds.  Keep in mind that soil solarization works by super-heating the soil, which kills the underlying plants and seeds. Just make sure that no one else has recently seeded a vegetable garden in the spot you want to solarize!

Clear plastic is preferred over black plastic during this process because of its ability to raise the soil temperature.  Black plastic can be used if your goal is weed control.  If diseases and nematodes have been a prior problem in the same location, clear plastic should be used due to its ability to sufficiently increase soil temperature  for disease and nematode control. Rake or rototill the area to be solarized, smooth it down, and then irrigate thoroughly. Apply the plastic closely over the soil surface and secure the edges with clips or rocks. If black plastic is used, it should be left intact for a full six weeks so that the soil can be properly heated.

 

Solarization often increases productivity of garden soil by allowing it to remain warmer throughout the growing season, while also houseing an abundance of valuable microbes that enrich the soil. 

 

• Recycle weeds by adding them to your compost pile or city greenwaste bin.  When compost is properly prepared, it reaches temperatures above 135 F, which kills weeds and their seeds as well as any diseases they may be carrying.

 

Happy Gardening!