Here is a look this week’s show notes for How To Keep Your Garden Weed Free This Year! Below you will also find our show notes along with reference and product links from the article. You can check out all of our past episodes on the website, here at : ALL EPISODES
IMPORTANT REFERENCE LINKS:
- How To Use Mulch In Your Garden To Stop Weeds Forever
- Stopping Weeds After The Garden Is Planted
- How To Properly Prepare A Garden For Winter
PRODUCT LINKS
Show Outline / Show Notes – How To Keep Your Garden Weed Free
Introduction:
The Problems Weeds Cause
- Weeds can turn a gorgeous garden into an eyesore in just a few weeks.
- They also choke the life out of your plants.
- Weeds compete for the same vital resources (water, nutrients, light and oxygen) that plants do.
- Keep yields down
- Can impact the health of plants -and resistance to pests
- Never ending cycle unless eliminated
But by simply following the few simple tips below, you really can have a weed free garden.
Without a lot of work, without a lot expense, and certainly without a lot of frustration.
4 Simple Steps To Success For A Weed Free Garden
# 1 Stop Tilling & Hoeing
Most weed issues in the garden are self-induced. Caused by working the soil more, resulting in weed seeds being “planted”.
Weed seeds lie in wait to be planted – tilling, hoeing, raking and digging all plant weed seeds.
Spring Tilling – The Start of it All
- Spring tilling plants weed seeds that are laying dormant on the soil
- hoeing, raking, digging, again planting seeds
- mid-season row tilling – plating more seeds.
The more soil is disturbed, the more detrimental it is
- soil structure
- weed seeds
- loss of moisture
- compaction of soil
#2 The Bare Soil Problem – Why Mulch Is The Answer
Bare soil = big garden trouble.
Keeping a weed free garden begins with keeping weed seeds from ever finding a permanent home in the soil.
And that means using mulch. Mulch eliminates the need from ever having to use a rototiller in your garden again!
Bare soil allows blowing and drifting weed seeds to find a home. But when you use mulch to protect the soil, you keep those future weed seeds from ever becoming established.
A heavy layer of mulch also suppresses existing weeds and weed seeds already in the soil, and helps insulate and protect the “good” plants
We use a combination of mulch in our vegetable garden to keep soil covered year round.
In our walking rows we use a heavy 4 to 6″ layer of shredded bark. In the growing rows, we use a 2 to 4″ combination of straw and shredded leaves.
And from late fall to early spring, we use cover crops to keep the soil protected.
That combination has led to fewer and fewer weeds every year, and minimal maintenance.
This “total” covering of bare soil all but eliminates weeds from ever becoming established, and makes maintaining the space simple.
In fact, these days, we spend less than 5 minutes a day in our garden keeping weeds under control.
And trust me when I say that keeps the fun in gardening!
#3 A Consistent Approach
Are you in your garden a little every day?
10 minutes each day does not equal 70 minutes
Consistent short visits are better than once or twice a week visits – issues multiply quickly.
#4 Fall Cover Crops – Why They Eliminate Weeds
Cover Crops are the ultimate answer to weeds.
Protect and revive soil – but they also prevent weed seeds from finding a home
Spring time mow off / mulch – no till is effortless compared to tilling
Keeps the soil continually covered.
Closing Remarks
