Tip of the Week — 1/26/08
Posted in Gardening Tips on January 26 2008, by Sonia Uyterhoeven
A Weedy Mess: Keeping My Life in Order
Sonia Uyterhoeven is Gardener for Public Education at The New York Botanical Garden.
I am always surprised with the long weekends that we have in January and February. I seem to remember all the other holidays, except for the ones that sneak up in mid-winter. Since I never plan for them, they turn into three days of extended housecleaning. The piles on my desk diminish and bills finally get filed in the right place. During these moments, I swear to good housekeeping practices that I never abide by.
Gardening is much the same. If I abide by a few simple rules and good horticultural practices then I won’t find myself swamped with one big green, leafy mess. Today, I will focus on just one aspect of horticulture: good weeding practices. Here are a few simple tips to make weeding easier.
- Keep your garden a reasonable size: Don’t be over ambitious. Be honest about how much time you intend to spend in your garden and how much work it will take.
- Stagger your spring planting: Freshly cultivated soil is an invitation for weeds. If you plant your beds all at once, you will be weeding them at the same time. Stagger you planting over a few weeks.
- Low maintenance plants for the low maintenance gardener: If you don’t like weeding, choose plants that out-compete weeds. Try selecting plants with broad foliage, heavy branching, large, tall plants, or vigorous growers. If the plant is doing its job of filling up the space, there will not be enough room or light for the weeds to come in.
- Weed often: It’s important to weed often not only to keep weeds at bay, but also for your general health. If you try weeding your entire garden all at once, you will have sore muscles at the end of the day.
- Attack flowering weeds or weeds that are about to flower first: If you let your weeds go to seed, you will have an uphill battle. Prioritize by weeding flowering weeds first and then get to the rest.
- Weed early in the season: Tiny weeds are easier to pull than big weeds. It will also give the plants you want in your garden a better chance of getting established.
- Hoe when dry, hand when wet: If your soil is dry, it is an ideal time to run a hoe thorough your garden. Weeds exposed to hot sun without any water will shrivel up and die in no time. Rake off the debris. If you try using a hoe when your soil is wet, weeds will simply re-root. When your soil is wet, it is a great time to tackle deep-rooted weeds like dandelions—they will be much easier to pull.
