Winning Against Weeds

Enlarge Image Image Gallery Once your crop is up, use a cultivating tool to control weeds in your garden. This Winged Weeder makes easy work of turning up the soil. Just be sure to get weeds out when they’re small. SCOTT HOLLIS

June/July 2006

By Patryk Battle

Use these seven organic techniques to keep weeds in their place.

At first, weeds seem innocuous enough — just green confetti scattered among flowers and vegetables. In fact, weeds bestow a multitude of gifts on us — from holding and protecting bare soils and providing habitat for beneficial insects, to their use as edible and medicinal plants (see “Get to Know Your Weeds”). But weeds compete with garden crops for space, water and nutrients, and if not kept in check, they can seriously affect crop yield and quality.

The key to preventing weeds from becoming a problem is to remove them before they produce seeds. Every pigweed or galinsoga plant that sets seed in your garden opens the door to the arrival of thousands of its offspring. These seeds can remain dormant for years and then sprout when you hoe or till your garden and bring them to the surface. Although some people use chemical herbicides to kill weeds, research suggests that these chemicals pose health risks to us and are damaging to our environment. Furthermore, they’re simply not the most effective way to control garden weeds. Herbicides, after all, are designed to kill plants. Fortunately, though, there are plenty of easy and safe organic techniques to keep weeds in check.

Basic Weed Prevention

Mulch. Using weed-free mulches is one of the best methods to prevent weed problems. Good options include mulching with leaves, straw or grass clippings. Fresh grass clippings from lawns that haven’t been treated with herbicides are a great choice because you can get them free from your lawn and from neighbors. Grass clippings contain about 4 percent nitrogen and provide a slow-release fertilizer as they decompose. Straw is the leftover material after grain has been threshed, and it makes a good mulch because it contains few weed seeds. Hay (dried grasses) can work well, too, but talk to a reputable supplier and specify you intend to use it as mulch to be sure it isn’t full of grass seeds. A method of gardening championed by the late Ruth Stout advocates the heavy application of spoiled hay, but if your hay is full of seeds, it only works if you keep piling on more and more.