Weeds are a nuisance to any whose garden they appear in. Unless treated correctly, they will continue to grow in the garden, ruining the appearance of the garden on which you have spent valuable time and money. In order to reduce the number of weeds that grow in your garden, you should install some preventative measures at the time of designing it. If you need some help on how to keep weeds out of your garden, this guide could help!
1. Lay Weed Matting
Weed matting should be laid under garden surfaces, such as gravel, shingle, sand or bark. It should also be laid under any decking area to ensure that weeds don’t grow up through the wood. It works as a sort of membrane that is strong enough to prevent weeds from growing up through such garden surfaces. Different types of weed matting is available, depending on where you will be using it in the garden.
2. Avoid Leaving Soil Bare
Bare soil is the perfect location for weeds to grow, so you should avoid leaving soil bare whenever possible. You should cover with any type of mulch available as this will act as a sort of obstruction for the weeds. Leaves, compost and bark make perfect materials to use as mulch.
3. Weed Little and Often
Whilst this doesn’t necessarily prevent weeds from growing in the first place, it does keep the issue of them a lot more under control. Spending just 5 minutes every couple of days on pulling up weeds from the garden will save you hours when you realise how bad the situation has got at the end of the month. This also means that the roots don’t have time to strengthen, which would make them more difficult to remove. It is important to get your technique right, however. Pull from the very bottom, using a hoe if necessary.
4. Do Not Disturb the Soil
It is important to keep turn soil to keep it aerated in order to promote healthy plant growth. However, aerating soil can also promote the growth of unwanted weeds. There will be weed seeds throughout your soil, but these will only grow if they are in the top two inches of the soil. This means that disturbing the soil will move seeds closer to this area, encouraging them to grow. To prevent this from being too much of an issue you should only disturb the soil when completely necessary.
5. Deprive Weeds of Water
When watering the plants you want to grow in your garden you should be very careful to avoid watering the weeds around them. Depriving them of water will impede their growth, eventually causing them to die. This will make them easier to pull out, if you don’t get to pull them out when they are alive.
Do you have any more top tips on how to keep garden free of weeds? Share them in the comments below!
