Practical Weed Control

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

Weeds do need to be controlled, but should you desire it, the process is really very easy.

I'm going to divide this into a discussion of three different garden situations: 1) the first garden, 2) the annual garden, and 3) the perennial garden. And we'll need some classifications, so stems, grasses, and creepers will do nicely for our purposes. Stems are plants that generally reach the garden as seeds, put down roots, and stay where they started. Some common examples are lamb's quarter, ragweed, pigweed (redroot), and our favorite, the dandelion. Grasses can come into the garden on a tiller blade, as seeds, or by creeping above or below ground. Grasses can re-root easily and, once established, they spread out in an effort to cover the ground. Creepers are also trying to cover the ground and they do it by sending out runners. Ground ivy and morning glories are the examples with which fm most familiar. I include one of the grasses in this group. In Maine it is called witchgrass. It is also known as quack grass, couch grass, wheat grass, quitch grass, Shelly grass, knotgrass, devil's grass, and scutch grass and if you still don't know what fm talking about, its Latin name is Agropyron repens.

The First Garden

The major difference between controlling weeds in the first garden and in later gardens is the grass. No matter how well the sod has been churned, there are bound to be some clumps left. A clump that is covered by soil and out of sight can find a way to push grass leaves to light. A clump on the surface can find a way to push roots down and re-root. You need to keep after them. The longer you allow these clumps of grass to gather energy from the sun and spread their roots, the more difficult it will be to uproot them. You can take time to try to knock all the soil from the roots or you can turn the clump with roots skyward and hope they dry out and die. I recall having persistent clumps that I kept kicking around whenever I was in the garden. They would always seem to find some way to get soil and water and turn their leaves toward the sun. Persistence will win in the end. But if you let the grass become vigorous, you will be turning sod again next spring.

"Why not just cart them away?" someone might ask. Because they are rich in soil nutrients. We want their value in our garden soil.

If your garden spot is covered with stems or creepers, the good news is that you won't have to worry about getting rid of sod. The bad news is that the soil is probably poor. Around new homes you may have grass that really should be stems and creepers. The grass was planted on back fill and fertilized to give you a lawn but the condition of the soil is really weak. Nature would have taken several years to prepare the ground for grass.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print