1: Twist, don’t shout
Young dandelions, plantains, tree seedlings, and other tenacious weeds come up easily if you twist as you pull. Grasp the plant below the leaves, at ground level, and twist while slowly pulling upward. For better leverage when pulling unwanted tree seedlings, wrap the pliable seedling around your hand.
2: Dig it
Add a long, skinny “dandelion digger” with a forked tip to your handtool collection. Use it to pop out the tough, deep taproots of dock, sorrel, burdock, and of course dandelions. The sharp tip of a triangular hoe makes short work of clump-forming weeds with fibrous roots, like chickweed and dead nettle. Swing the hoe toward you so that the blade slices and lifts the weed. It takes only a little practice to develop great hand-eye coordination with a hoe, and the activity can be a great stress reducer.
3: Smother ‘em with the Sunday paper
Kill off existing weeds and block new ones from sprouting with biodegradable newspaper. Layer 2- or 3-sheet sections of newspaper around your perennials and other plants and cover with a thin, disguising layer of grass clippings or bark mulch. Rain will soak through, worms will move up to work the paper into the soil, and you’ll get better, looser soil in the bargain.
4: Mulch, mulch, mulch
Don’t bag those grass clippings or fall leaves. Use them to keep your garden weed-free. Spread a 2-inch layer of grass clippings (or 4 to 6 inches of fall leaves that you have chopped with a pass or two of the lawnmower) around shrubs and perennials, keeping the mulch an inch or two away from the crown of the desirable plants. Weeds beneath will suffocate and any new ones that sprout will be easy to pull.
5: Practice flame-throwing
Use a portable torch to burn off weeds in cracks of brick or paving stones. A quick tongue of flame will sear most weeds instantly. If they green up again, repeat the treatment — they’ll soon give up and die.
6: Listen to Shakespeare
“Now tis the spring, and weeds are shallow-rooted. Suffer them now and they’ll o’ergrow the garden,” said the Bard in King Henry VI. He was right, of course. Use your hoe or a hand hoe to slice off young weeds en masse, before they get a roothold in the garden. Skim the soil surface lightly with the hoe, scraping or slicing off the weeds. Avoid disturbing the soil with chopping motions, which will only bring more weed seeds to the surface to sprout. This is a great technique for lady’s-thumb, lamb’s-quarters, and other weeds that produce dense masses of self-sown seedlings. It also works well on chickweed, purslane, and other shallow-rooted weeds.
Speak Your Mind