One of the less pleasant chores for any gardener is weed control and organic weed control can be a bit more time consuming as you need to rely on natural methods as opposed to chemical ones. Yet, controlling weeds is critical to any garden, not only because weeds are unsightly but also because they steal nutrients from the soil that should be getting to your plants.
One of the easiest things you can do to control weeds is to mulch properly. You want to use organic mulch only, of course! Mulching not only helps the soil maintain moisture, but it also block light from getting to the places where weeds might grow. This discourages growth and you end up with less weeds. Of course, you want to mulch around your plants as putting mulch on top of them would discourage their growth too!
Some people use grass clipping and straw for organic mulch, and these work well since as they break down they add nutrients to the soil Another thing you can do is add a layer of newspaper on your garden bed – it doesn’t look so great but it really keeps weeds down and you can always cover it with straw to make it a bit more appealing.
Yet, no matter how much mulch I put on my garden, there always seems to be some weeds that spring up so I practice manual organic weed control which is just a fancy way of saying I get down on my hands and knees and pull up the weeds!
If you like to spend time in the garden, this probably isn’t as much work as it might seem to be. Especially if you take some time each day to go out and pull up weeds, then they won’t get out of control and the task won’t seem overwhelming. Sometimes I just use my hands to grasp the weed and pull it out, but some of them seem to have long stubborn roots and I use a small space to dig in and make sure I get it all.
Anther thing you can do is plant cover crops. These are fast growing crops that will grow alongside your actual crops and take up all the space that the weeds would normally grow in. Thyme is one example of this type of crop.
Another product that many people are using for organic weed control is corn gluten meal. This yellowy powder. It is a “pre-emergent” which simply means you use it before weeds can sprout or emerge. It works by preventing roots from forming during germination. It won’t do anything to weeds (or plants) that are already growing with an established root system.
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