Weed free? Hmmm.

You have to pull them out--they are easier to yank when they're young. I also use a scuffle hoe. I do NOT use products like Preen or weed poisons. You can put some kitchen vinegar into a spritzer and spritz young weed seedlings and they will die. You have to take close aim with the vinegar as it will also effect the other plants it sprays too.

My Mom had a quahog clamshell that she used as a ground scraper, she loved that shell. It did a good job.

When it comes to weeds elbow grease is inevitable.

T

I make sure I keep up with the weeding - It's easier if you weed right after it rains - they pull up easily. I start very early spring and work on one section at a time - everyday until everything is clear.

Then, I check everyday after that and when I find a "weed" (blade of grass, etc.), I pull it.

No one is ever weed free. I don't use anything but my hands... I don't use chemicals in my garden, not even anything to kill Jap Beetles - I love butterflies and want as many as I can get - so no chemicals are in my yard.

Take one section at a time, put on some music and learn to find that weeding can also be a "relaxing" part of gardening - because once you are done with a section, it looks so nice.

Carrie

The root systems and/or runners on some of these "small" above ground weeds are amazing.

I'm constantly pulling as I walk around doing work.

Even when I dig out a patch of underground roots the perennial weeds are very persistent. There are almost always some root fragments left and they pop back up many, many times.

I have tried chemical controls...they are of very limited effectiveness despite their label claims. Even ones that say they kill down to the roots.

I have to hand water most plants and all containers. That's another time when I pull weeds.

It seems preventing and/or suppressing weeds and their seed germination is better than dealing with them once they've sprouted. (Duh, on my part) Link below actually says squash and cucumbers are good weed suppression crops if started early. They shade out weed growth. Nice to know if your veggie patch location isn't under water again next year.

For this year you may not have a choice but to clear out that ground of all the weeds you see. The scuffel hoe or some variant that Trudi mentioned really is useful. I got one after hearing so many forum members raving about it.

For next year you might want to put down black plastic or something to try and smother the weed seeds before they germinate and you need to plant veggies. You'll have to research the "cover seed kill" concept as I'm not well versed in its particulars of timing/materials and wouldn't want to lead you astray. Fall planting of a relatively easy to Spring till cover crop in the location where you want to suppress weeds is another option. Again, I can't tell you the best crop to choose or even know if you want to till in cover crop come Spring but it's another option.

Good luck and get out the Advil or your choice of back pain relief remedy. This is just one of those things that gets away from you really fast if you don't keeep up with it...I know from my own procrastination (always something better to do)for letting weeds go and not preventing them to begin with as best one can.

Here is a link that might be useful: Vegetable Garden Weed Control

Plant really close to discourage weeds once you get an area weed free (and plant it before the weeds come back!)

This year for the very first time I am scuffle hoe committed and so far it is working. I hoe the weed babies right down soon as I see them. I have dirt paths going through a lot of the beds and I just clear clear clear with the hoe. In the past I have been a hand weeder, mostly cause I didn't want to mow down volunteer flowers. But I find that half of what I think might be a volunteer is a weed anyway, so I am being ruthless this year.Especially with clover, which takes hold early in the season (now) and doesn't let up. Clover is the enemy; the scuffle hoe will get it now but not so well when it gets taller. I am MAKING myself take breaks from planting out to hunt it down and mow it down. I think this has been a big mistake in the past....I spend May/June planting out and not paying much attention to the weeds and then they are TOO tough and tall to hoe; must be hand pulled.

Learning all the time in the garden...
Nancy

I won't regurgitate Carrie's post; it's exactly what I do, and how I do it. I will admit I have many beds, and sometimes one will get neglected, but like Carrie said, it's theraputic to get in there and clean things out.

The only chemical applications I use are soapy water spritz on my rosebush for the JBs, and this year I put Preen for Veggie Gardens in my paths ONLY of my veggie patch. I have raised beds, but won't use it IN the beds. Trudi, thanks for the wonderful vinegar tip; I don't have a structure for my raised beds, so those little seedlings are becoming a little carpet on the side-walls of my raised beds. Will def try that over the weekend!

I work full time, so there's not much time between 6pm and dark to plant out, and maintain, so time-management of the weed-patrolling is essential. Can't turn my back on it.

Trying desperately to be more diligent about it this year.

I have few weeds because I have mulch. I also have learned that my mulch may be keeping me from getting re-seeders that can't reach the dirt.

The rest of the weeds I do get, I yank by hand or use my hoe.

My goal is to plant close and not leave room for weeds this way I can avoid using a heavy coat of mulch. it is nice for the soil but a lot of work!!!

Karen

I have so much to get done I shouldn't be posting to too many threads, but this has become an awful problem for me. It's timeout for me between planting and other to do's.

I have few weeds because I have mulch. I also have learned that my mulch may be keeping me from getting re-seeders that can't reach the dirt.

That is one of my problems, too. Fortunately they are confined to certain areas. I can't find my new hoe I swear I bought last year but have a pointy thing. The less I have to bend the better because my back just can't take much of it. Yesterday in desperation I tacked down cardboard until I can get more mulch (hard to get out now and carry the bags). I've also covered with black plastic. For borders I've used 6 ply folded newspaper.

I am going to do it all. The lawn will have to get an application of weed 'n feed, maybe two. It's just gotten that bad.

I'm going to use Roundup to start fresh by the alley. I'm using Grass 'b Gone, and it works really well, says it doesn't damage nearby plants and it doesn't so far, saved me last summer in a very long strip garden. I'm dreading mixing the Roundup but have to do it. I'm also using Roundup with cotton or paintbrush in some of my beds where I cannot get rid of it. I might try that vinegar as it's safer than Roundup on tiny stuff, wonder what all it kills. So thanks for that idea.

My roses may get some limited spraying, but nothing for Jap Beetles as what works best kills bees.

I've been pulling, digging right along in between other chores, and I'm only gaining on it a little. There are two new weeds, huge clover, must have come in in a bag of something to amend soil with. Also some runner stuff that I never had before after I just got mostly rid of two other kinds after fighting it for years.

One bad thing about my tiller and spading (I do that to get rid of weeds, too, and pick them out along with loosening and aerating the soil) is that it brings seeds to the surface again.

Hi Northerner!!

We have had a pesticide/insecticide ban here in Nova Scotia for quite some time now, but even before then I barely used them. I know I haven't used anything since 2001, the year we moved here.

I love to weed. Yes, they annoy me, but there's just something about spending quiet time in the gardens weeding, watching the squirrels and the birds, apologizing to the worms, and discovering a new seedling. My mother always enjoyed this task as well since it was her only quiet time as all nine of of grew up. :O) I guess you know where I get it from now.

I love weeding, too. I love it when it is cool in the morning, the birds are singing and I know that I am improving my garden as I "weed along"...

I guess I like it because I know that when I am done, my borders will look better (and when you have NO choice BUT to weed, you just LEARN to like it...) :0)

Carrie

The garden hose can be a great tool as well. As I'm out sprinkling the seedlings and recently moved plants, I'll soak a weed, and yank. Works really well on crabgrass, plantain, etc.
I also bought a scuffle hoe from Lee Valley (I could spend thousands at that store, but limit myself to one tool a year), and it's marvelous.
I can't wait till the tulips are done, because there's some nasties growing within the clumps.
Good old fashioned elbow grease is the only solution. Once you determine which volunteers you want to grow on, scuffle heavily around them, and mulch thickly.

Here are a few tips about weeds which have helped me to at least feel like I'm ahead:

1. Don't water them. Of course, you can't control when Ma Nature does it, but you don't have to help her. Since I've started switching from sprinklers and soaker hoses to plant-by-plant drip irrigation, I've noticed far fewer weeds in un-irrigated sections of the garden.

The same goes for feeding. If you broadcast fertilizer, in any way, you're feeding weeds as well as plants. You only need fertilizer in the rootzone of the plants you want. Be very careful with foliar feeding, and only use it when you can be sure you're restricting it to the leaves of good plants, and not hitting weeds as well.

2. Don't compost the weeds you pull. A couple of years ago, I Started collecting this stuff in large plastic bags, and putting it out as yard waste, which is picked up and hauled away by the town. Lacking that service, I'd probably burn them. Unless your compost is really hot, viable parts of weeds, including seeds and rhizome sections will reappear in the compost, and wherever you use the compost.

3. Hoes are great tools, and I use a few regularly; a scuffle hoe and both a long and short-handled circle hoe. However, I only use them as a stop-gap, to halt the growth of weeds until I can collect them up and dispose of them. If you leave the hoe-cut weed parts in the garden, they'll grow back in short order. I cut them down with the hoe, and then rake up the debris, including the soil they were in, and toss it all.

Apart from all that, I weed all day, every day. I stop and pull weeds everywhere I go in the garden. I have little piles of weeds in one corner of each bed, which I gather up a few times a week. I do the same thing with rocks. My native soil is full of rocks, in sizes from Pea to Potato. As I dig and plant and till, I pick up any rock larger than a marble, and stash it in another corner of the bed. Once a week, I schlep a 5-gallon bucket around and gather up all of these little piles. Eventually, I'll have enough to mulch my entire succulent bed.

Thank you all for all the wonderful advice about weeds and weeding. I do not use any sprays/poisons in my garden, and I only use fertilizers on my pots with flowers so I have usually hand pulled, but this year is unbelievable. It may have something to do with the weather - we have had great weather for the tulips with lots of rain and overcast days but for the last couple of days the sun has come out and the areas where I usually plant my tomatoes and my walkways are literally covered with these weed seedlings, and the wild violets are blooming their heads off. My lawn was already full of areas of clover and another flat weed and I had lifted up several areas which I plan to re-seed so I was totally flabbergasted. I once used the vinegar solution on weeds between my patio stones and wasn't too successful, but I will try again and I really must get one of those scuffle hoes. Never heard of them but I looked them up and they seem very useful. With the violets, once I get off the tops, then I can take time digging out the rhizomes and disposing of them in the yard bags. I also do that with any blade of grass I pull from the garden that has seeds on it. So I guess it'll be a back breaking spring for me - I already hurt my back planting out on Wednesday, so I'll have to be careful. Thank you ladies and Don. Lee Valley, here I come!!!
Northerner.

Since I have been living here I have NEVER allowed weeds to set seed in my beds...that is no. 1! Over the years the weeding has been pretty minimal compared to when I first started gardening here.
I am one to see the tiniest weed seedlings an pull ASAP or I use a hoe to scratch them off the surface. I can ID most weed seedlings from desirable seedlings at very early stages, but I do have a few desirable that have become more of a pest than anything so I have to stay on top of those seedlings as well!
I NEVER cultivate deeply in established beds (no tilling veggie beds either)to avoid bringing up the seed bank year after year. When I make a new bed I double dig it once only and make sure every single root piece from Quack grass is taken out...my worst possible enemy! This will bring up weed seedlings at first, but mostly of annual weeds...easy to deal with.
I go through the beds a few times before planting and get any weeds that do show up and pull them as I see them (I usually out there a few times a day so nothing gets past me for too long!
I mulch but not heavily until abt. the 2nd week in June. Some areas I barely mulch at all because I plant pretty dense and the ground is shaded most of the season eliminating light to the ground. I remove most of the mulch in early spring to allow the soil to warm, to allow re-seeding and to eliminate coverage to slugs, earwigs, ect.

Here, too, only it's volunteer flowers, not actual weeds. It might as well be though, because it requires just as much weeding out. This will be my 2nd year of trying to get rid of the verbena bonariensis. I also have excess petunia, digitalis, and others.

I've tried to stick to organics but am about ready to buy Preen. Thinking about it seriously because I cannot spend another entire summer weeding out vb. I'm going to try the corn gluten first. I should be shot for ever planting the stuff in the first place. My goal is to be better at deadheading things this year so seeds aren't dropped in the first place.

Karen

Vera, I think I will rename you "Weed Warrior" because that's what you are with that regimen. It's great advice and I will try to follow it, because it makes so much sense. I guess I let my guard down these last two weeks and all the rain did not help. By now, I would usually have cultivated those areas already, but lots of it is in my pathways.

Karen, I am always so vigilant about deadheading, and cleaning everything up in the Fall that I almost never get any volunteers, not even Black Eyed Susans or Hollyhocks. I sowed VB last year, but no volunteers this year. I do have two volunteers of Penny Blacks, but they are exactly where I planted them last year and I will leave them.

This year I decided I wanted to replace part of my lawn by the fence line with some flowers. Please be aware my lawn has its fair share of wild violets growing it. Will try using some weed & feed on it. Anyway in the section where my flowers are I 1st dug up and grass/weeds. I then laid down newspaper about 8 sheets think, make sure the edges are overlapping. Wet the newspaper thoroughly. On top of the newspaper I put a layer of shredded leaf mulch. To plant I just poke holes through the newspaper, make a soil plug (used potting soil for this), and insert my seedlings/plants. So far no evidence of weeds whatsoever.

Of course the newspaper will break down and have to be replaced. Though in the long run this should help improve the soil. I like Vera's approach of removing the mulch in the spring. I will be doing this next year. Adding more newspaper and then putting my mulch back on top.

-StLGirl

I'll just add a couple of more thoughts to what the previous posters have already responded with.
I have an enormous amount of flower beds and so I'm always fighting weeds. When a bed gets away from me, I'll focus on pulling any weeds blooming (or about to set seed) and the area immediately around the plants. Widening that area over time. Keeping the weeds from blooming really has helped me save a few beds I thought were done for.

I also have a lot of dandelions in the lawn this year. I've found if I spend 15 minutes or so plucking off the yellow heads each evening. I can really get rid of those pesky annual weeds. Eventually, they do give up trying to produce seeds. The real results from doing this comes the following season when you have very few dandelions to deal with. I've used this technique to eradicate them from a wild flower meadow that was quite large. (I throw away the dandelion flower heads then)

Good luck and don't give up. Besides, YOU are probably the only one that really notices the weeds. To everyone else that visits your garden, it all just looks green and lush ;)