90% of the time I spend outside is hand weeding.
It's how I meditate :)

Kevin, very interesting article, thanks for posting it. I am 100% organic grower and have to figure a way to keep weeds at bay without chemical help. I like the idea of 'sustainability', doing things that can be maintained and that make sense and work with nature. I also can't figure out companies like Monsanto, that see that chemicals have to keep increasing in strength to attempt to control resistant bugs or weeds, and don't seem to take into account the beneficial insects that they are injuring, let alone people.

My approach, is planting every space I can with a beneficial plant. If a good plant is growing there, a weed cannot be. I still have spaces in my beds I haven't filled yet, but I'm working on it. I also mulch which makes a big difference. I use cover crops in the vegetable garden and mulch.

I also don't understand using a chemical to kill the weeds and leaving the dead plants in the ground. Don't you have to pull out the dead plants anyway?

And I am with cearbhaill....hand weeding can be very meditative.

Hand-weeding is how I really get to see how everything is doing - are the roses sending up basal breaks? Do the brown snakes still live under the hydrangeas? How dry is it under the big hostas? Then I bundle up most of the weeds and put them in the compost bin and feel very virtuous.

Because that article dealt only with agricultural crops, I don't know what impact these super weeds might have on we the home gardener. I guess it would be interesting to hear if anyone who uses a lot of Roundup or whatever is seeing some of the same results. Companies like Monsanto kind of drive me crazy, but that's too political for this forum.

I don't mind weeding at all mainly because weeds aren't that big of a problem. It really is true if you stay on top of them, you see less and less as the years go by. Weeding also helps me 'get in the zone' so-to-speak. If I'm having one of those days, where I just don't know what to do first, I start weeding. It calms me down, it centers me, it helps me focus.

Kevin