Managing Weeds in the Garden

Invest a bit of time now to prevent thousands of weeds and save yourself hours weeding next year.

Simply pulling one weed before it sets seed can prevent hundreds of weeds in next year’s landscape. So if the weeds are starting to take over tackle those flowering or setting seed first.  Do not compost these.  Most of our compost piles don’t heat up enough to kill the weed seeds.  Contact your local municipality to find out your options for disposing of these as well as perennial and invasive weeds.

Next, pull out any remaining weeds.  Annual noninvasive weeds that have not set seed can be composted or used as mulch.

Once the area is weeded, add a layer of shredded leaves, herbicide-free grass clippings or other organic matter to prevent weed seeds in the ground from sprouting. 

A bit more information: Further increase success by starting the process with a couple sheets of newspaper.  Remove the weeds, spread a few sheets of newspaper over the soil and cover with herbicide-free grass clippings, evergreen needles, woodchips or other organic matter.  The newspaper helps suppress the weeds before decomposing and helping to improve the soil below.