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Simple Methods for Preventing Weeds |
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Written by Webmaster
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Friday, 31 October 2008 |
By rwakefield
 Weeds in your garden are a real pain. They take over and push out your prized plants, taking water, nutrients and space away from proper garden plants. Some people enjoy weeding and it is good exercise, much cheaper than going to the gym! However, many people see it as a chore and it may not be high on your list of priorities. So, is there anything you can do to actually prevent weeds so that you do not have to spend as much time weeding and spend more time relaxing and enjoying your garden? Yes. Read on.
One of the best ways of preventing weeds from growing in flower beds and borders, is to to use a layer of bark chippings, mulch or gravel. Bark chippings do have a tendency to blow around the garden and gravel can end up on your lawn, causing damage to your lawnmower, so mulch may be the best option.
Before you apply the layer of mulch, you must first prepare your flower beds and that means doing some weeding! Use a hand fork to remove all present
weeds, making sure that you remove all roots, weed fragments, suckers, vines and shoots. Dispose of the weeds carefully so that seeds cannot be spread. Once your border is weed free, you can water it liberally and cover the soil in a weed membrane. A membrane is not necessary but it stops gravel and mulch sinking into the soil and also stops any weeds from establishing properly in the mulch. If you have got bulbs in your flower beds, leave out the membrane and simply lay the mulch onto the well-watered soil. Apply the mulch the same day that you have weeded the soil so that no seeds are given the chance to blow on the soil and germinate before you add the mulch. Also make sure that you weed surrounding areas well, plants like bindweed, Japanese knotweed, ground elder and couchgrass can still penetrate mulch.
You can either buy mulch from garden centres and use the black plastic sacking it comes in as a membrane underneath it. Simply lay the plastic on your flower bed and stab holes in it for drainage. You can also use compost from your compost heap, wet newspaper, pieces of carpet or matting, or grass clippings as mulch or you can combine these with mulch from the garden centre to make it go further. To be effective, your layer of mulch needs to be at least 5-10 centimetres deep all over your flower bed. Leave space around the bases of plants so that they can breathe and, when you need to plant new plants, carefully push the mulch to one side, plant the plant and then re-cover. Always check the soil and rootball of new plants, you do not want to introduce new weeds into your garden!
You will need to keep an eye on your flower beds and will need to top up the mulch regularly. Pets like cats can dig into the mulch and cause bare areas as can birds and wildlife. Keep an eye out for weeds and remove them as soon as you see them, they should be easy to deal with as they should not have deep roots.
If you really want to stop weeds from nearby areas, like bindweed, from penetrating your borders from underground, you may want to consider more drastic action. If you have got a piece of thick plastic or even metal, you could bury this to a depth of half a metre to act as an underground barrier and leave 10cm or so sticking out of the ground to prevent any overground vines or shoots from invading. This is quite an effort but prevention is better than spending lots of time weeding!
R.Wakefield is an author and publisher who works for Japanese Knotweed Solutions Limited, (http://www.jksl.com), who are the premier UK specialists in the eradication of japanese knotweed. This dangerous plant is considered to be one of the most difficult to eliminate weeds in the wild, and is responsible for substantive damage and devastation to home gardens, walls and our natural countryside.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 31 October 2008 )
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