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Weed alert

Posted on August 17th, 2007 – 10:04 AM
By Connie Nelson

I was hanging out in the garden last night. It was soooooo beautiful that I didn’t want to go in. (Besides, I had dishes to do.) I was picking up sticks from the storms, doing some deadheading when I happened to look at a big clump of ornamental grasses. And what to my wondering eyes should appear? Weeds! Lots of big, tall, weeds — with big, fat seedheads.

Needless to say, I spent the rest of the night weeding. The whole time, I kept trying to figure out how it happened. I had put down a thick layer of mulch and weeded kinda sorta regularly throughout the summer. I mean, weeds can sneak up on you and all. But these things were more than a foot tall! Guess they outsmarted me by growing up in the grasses, which gave them cover.

I’ll be spending the weekend weeding. (I know I have to get those weeds out of there before they go to seed.) But I’m wondering if anyone’s got any great weed-prevention practices? Do you put newspaper under your mulch? Do you weed every week? Or, at this stage in the game, do you just let them go?

This entry was posted on Friday, August 17th, 2007 at 10:04 am and is filed under Weeds, Weekend to-dos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

6 Responses to "Weed alert"

rmspitzler says:

August 17th, 2007 at 4:09 pm

No weeds here. Collect grass clippings in bag as you mow and spread around plants.

Connie Nelson says:

August 17th, 2007 at 4:22 pm

Hey rmspitzler,
Do you do that every time you mow? How thick a layer of grass clippings do you have by the end of the year? And, most important of all, does it really keep the weeds out?

nickie says:

August 18th, 2007 at 4:18 pm

Newspaper under the mulch works wonders….I use that and any weeds that germinate on top pop right out with ease!

Cindy says:

August 22nd, 2007 at 9:44 am

I’ve used newspaper under mulch and found it to be highly effective. This season, I laid paper right on top of the grass that I wanted to eliminate (I was creating a border for a short garden path) and then covered it with mulch. Perfect! It sure beat the tough task of digging out old, established grass! Over time, I have grown skeptical of the use of fabric or vinyl weedblock intended to lay under the mulch. Besides being WAY too much work to put down, it just didn’t promote or allow the natural process of mulch decomposition (which would enrich the soil). Any problem spots I’ve encountered in my gardens seemed to be in areas I had layed the fabric weedblock down years ago. Thus I’ve pulled it all up. And all is well! Oh, by the way, I also created a new stretch of garden along my driveway (native grasses, lilies, etc) and placed a nice layer of mulch right on top of the soil. (no weedblock) Any weeds that have popped up have pulled out with ease!

Jaime Chismar says:

August 22nd, 2007 at 10:29 am

Wow, I am so glad that the newspaper trick worked! I have a plan to widen my beds. I can hardly wait to try it.

laura says:

August 27th, 2007 at 5:39 pm

i made the mistake of buying manure that wasnt composted manure, and ended up with a garden FULL of cowgrass. now its spreading across my entire backyard, wiping out my regular grass.

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