Got Weeds?

The weather has been so lovely recently; cool, often sunny, but enough rain so that everything outside is incredibly green and lush.  It's a great time to be outdoors, and I treasure my garden time.  So what do I spend my time doing?  Weeding!  I avoid using synthetic products on my lawn, like weed killers or weed and feed products, and so my yard gets lots of weeds.  Weed pollens tend to be a major allergy issue, so I need to eliminate them.  Result?  I spend a lot of time pulling weeds.

There are a few things I can do to try to prevent weeds in the first place. 
First of all, if a lawn or garden is thick enough, weeds have a harder time getting a foot-hold to start with.  If there's bare soil, it's an open invitation for all kinds of things to get started growing. So it helps to simply encourage the lawn, or garden plants, to flourish and cover over the soil and choke out weeds from getting started.  In some areas of my garden where the plantings have matured a bit, I find I have less weeding to do.

Secondly, mulch can help discourage weeds. But gardeners with allergy issues need to use mulch carefully.  Organic mulches like straw or shredded bark will, especially when damp, harbor mold as they slowly break down.  In some areas of the yard gravel or river pebbles can work as a mulch that will not encourage mold.  I do use some  bark mulch, but I choose chunks of bark that are larger in size, and I use it in areas of the garden not too close to the house where mold spores would be coming in windows or be near outdoor sitting areas.  In areas where some gardeners would use such mulches, I use ground cover plantings.

Some gardeners use layers of newspaper, with more decorative mulches like the bark or gravel over it.  The newspaper will tend to help keep down weeds for a while, but will of course break down over time. It will allow moisture to pass through though, unlike sheet plastic mulches.  I do like the moisture-permeable plastic weed blocks to put down under the more decorative mulches.

I have been using corn gluten products now for several years to help prevent weeds.  Corn gluten is a granular product that when sprinkled on the ground, will help prevent seeds from germinating and taking root.  It also helps fertilize established plants, and is quite safe around pets and wildlife.  It does not, however, do anything about weeds that have already germinated, so if it is not applied often enough or early enough (my problem!), you still have weeds to pull.  It is also important not to use it in areas where you wish to start seeds.  The recommendation is to apply the corn gluten twice a year, which I have been doing.  Since I still have more weeds than I like, I may need to be applying it more heavily plus I will try to get it done earlier next spring.  The early warm spring this year gave weeds a jump-start before I was ready for them.

There is always so much to do in the garden, and weeding is certainly not my favorite thing to do.  But I find after the stress of a day at the office, that with a bit of music from the MP3 player, those few minutes to clean up the weeds in just one little area can be a relaxing time for me, that leaves the garden a better place when I'm done.