Keep Weeds from Growing in Your Garden
The best way to rid your garden of weeds is to stop them from growing in the first place. After spending numerous hours pulling garden weeds, you’ll welcome ways to prevent those weeds from coming back.
News for Your Garden
Newspapers aren’t just for reading. Newspaper is a fantastic material for keeping weeds from growing. Newspaper will allow moisture to reach the roots of plants, but newspaper will block out light and keep weeds from growing.
After initially removing weeds, simply cover the soil with several layers of black and white newspaper. Don’t use newspapers with colored ink. The ink may contain lead and contaminate the soil. Water the area immediately after laying the black and white newspaper, and if necessary, position rocks on the papers to hold them in place.
If you don’t receive a daily or weekly newspaper, ask friends or relatives to save their papers. Newspapers make great garden mulch. Papers are biodegradable, and best of all, newspapers can be obtained for free.
Obtain Earlier Weed-free Crops
If you want to give your crops a boost and keep weeds out at the same time, consider putting sheets of black plastic over your garden soil. Black plastic sheets applied early in the growing season will help warm the soil, and crops will get a beneficial head start while keeping out nutrient-robbing weeds.
You can find rolls of black plastic in garden centers. Simply trim the plastic to the appropriate size, and use bricks or rocks to hold the plastic in place. Cut openings in the plastic with a utility knife, and plant vegetables and flowers within the openings. The weeds won’t grow, and you’re likely to have greater yields and prolific growth.
Preen Your Garden
In years past I applied a granular product to my garden called “Preen.” This year I turned over the soil with a shovel, and I removed clumps of weeds before planting my garden. Unfortunately I didn’t use Preen. Although I had Preen in my garden shed, I didn’t apply the product because my zucchini seeds hadn’t yet sprouted. Preen shouldn’t be used in areas that have been seeded because it works by preventing germination. After the zucchini seeds developed into plants, I still didn’t apply Preen, and this was a huge mistake.
Now I have crabgrass and numerous other weeds to deal with. I’ve pulled the weeds from about one third of my garden, but I have a long way to go. I’ve sprinkled Preen in the weeded area, and I plan on pulling the weeds and applying Preen until the garden is completely weed-free.
When I realized how quickly weeds took over my garden, I was shocked. I momentarily wondered why my garden had so many weeds, but it didn’t take long to figure out why this summer was different from years past. I used Preen during previous growing seasons, and weeds were never a problem.
Preen won’t kill existing weeds. It’s still necessary to get rid of them, but after applying this fantastic product, the weeds won’t come back. Your garden will be beautifully preened and free from weeds.
