Poll: How do you get rid of weeds?

[Jason]

Recent cold weather has kept many of us inside, giving the weeds in the garden a chance to run amok.

The latest Workshop poll asks how you get the upper hand in your garden battleground: how do you usually get rid of those pesky weeds?

Do you get down on your knees and yank them out by hand? Do you apply a commercial weed killer? Or do you use a tried-and-tested technique handed down from previous generations such as boiling water?

The poll can be found on the front page underneath the Join the discussion icons. Please add your vote. I also encourage community members to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of various weed-killing strategies by replying to the conversation below. 

Jason

[Adam_W]

Weeds… I have an odd level of respect for them, their incredible ability to take advantage of an opening & go for it often seemingly overnight…

Here are my personal strategies…

Garden areas –

As @greygardener mentioned mulch is always number 1 for sorting out weeds. It prevents any seeds in the soil from growing & any seeds (or plant parts) that get growing in the mulch itself are very easy to remove by hand.

In most situation I will always hand-weed garden beds.

A couple of cautions though;

- Know your enemy… some weeds can regrow from any part that falls onto the soil so extra care needs to be taken, others may have caustic, irritant or toxic sap so you may need to be wearing protective gear.

- Beware of seeds – if a weed is setting seed it is easy to accidentally distribute seed amplifying your weed problem. If a weed looks like it’s going to seed remove the seed head first, bag it in plastic bag and then remove the weed.

Lawns –

The best measure for lawn weeds is preventative – keep your lawn well-fed and healthy. If you've missed that boat & you need to remove weeds that have established try hand-weeding first. Fiskars make an excellent long-handled lawn weeding tool to save your knees & back.

A tip here too – be systematic and do the lawn in a methodical pattern. If you jump back & forth apart from missing weeds you’ll quickly tire of the task feeling like it’s an unbeatable problem.

If you decide to try other options then hot water is not a good idea as there is too much collateral damage to surrounding grass likewise the potential risk with spot spraying with a herbicide (weed killer). On saying that though you can get spray hoods for pressure sprayers that limit the spread of herbicide.

The other option is to use selective herbicides – weed & feed type products. Just make sure the one you select is compatible with your lawn type as many can harm buffalo.

Paths, pavers etc –

These are the sort of areas where if hand-weeding isn’t practical boiling water is perfect or just a general herbicide if you wish.

[Gezza87]

Thanks for the replies I guess I will start the long process of removing the weeds by hand they are the foxtail weeds so it will definitely be a slow process as I want to drop the most minimal amount of seeds as possible.

[greygardener]

Yes, get the seed heads off carefully then dig deeply with a tool to get all the roots. Good luck.  

[Kate68]

Yes, definitely try to stop the weeds before they grow. Put newspaper down over the soil around your plants and cover it with mulch meaning they have a harder time to grow through your garden beds.

[Jason]

Thanks for the tip @Kate68 and for joining in the discussion. It's great to have you as our latest Workshop member. I hope you find plenty of other great advice and inspiration for your projects from our members. 

Jason

[Jason]

Just noticed this great suggestion for dealing with heavily weed-infested areas of your garden from Workshop's @CathM - using old cotton bed sheets.

Cath's video explaning the technique is below. Hope you find it useful for dealing with those pesky weeds. 

Jason