Let's Grow Stuff

Greetings from the garden. My name is Ben, and today we're gonna look at chemical-free methods to help keep weeds under control. Let's jump into the garden, and we'll get started. First things first. Let's get to know a little bit about these plants that we refer to as "weeds." It's important to realize that weeds have a really important ecological role to play. They're the first to respond when there's been a major disruption in a natural system, something like a flood or a wildfire or other sort of major event. They help to stabilize the system so that greater plant diversity and wildlife diversity can return. Weeds aren't out to get you or harm you or your garden in any way. Weeds will only grow where light reaches bare soil. There are literally thousands of seeds waiting dormant in your soil, what we refer to as a "seed bank." As soon as bare soil is exposed, weeds will germinate and grow. New weed seeds arrive all the time too. They're carried on the wind, dropped by birds, or fall from mature weed we might have missed. Any time you turn the soil through planting, cultivating, or pulling weeds, you bring new seeds to the surface. So, if it all comes down to light, that means we have two main goals as gardeners. The first is to limit the amount of light that reaches our soil surface, and the second is to try and reduce soil disturbance as much as possible. And there's a few ways that we can go about doing this. First, we're gonna look at mulching. When our veggie plants are small and just getting started, we can mulch around them to cover the soil. Avoid heavy mulches like bark and wood chips. Try to use mulches like seed-free straw or chopped up brown leaves. You can also use grass clippings, but only if your lawn is chemical-free, too. Spread mulch no deeper than two to three inches. Make sure you don't bury any new transplants. Within a month or so, mulch will settle to about one inch. By the end of the season, it will almost entirely decompose and disappear, feeding your soil in the process. Next, when you do have weeds, it's important to know what to pull because we want to minimize soil disturbance as much as we can.

There are two types of weeds we have to deal with

annuals and perennials. Annual weeds will complete their entire life cycle in one season and will produce seeds as quickly as possible. Annuals don't invest much energy in their root systems. Don't pull annual weeds unless you must. Pulling annual weeds only disturbs the soil and brings new weed seeds to the surface. Instead, try cutting the plant off at the base near the ground before it flowers and produces seed. The remainder of the plant will decompose in the ground. Some common annual weeds you might encounter include purslane, lambsquarters, pennycress, and ragweed. Perennial weeds are more resilient, investing energy and time in bigger root systems for the long-haul. Perennial weeds... well, they require a bit more work. You need to remove the entire plant, including the roots, in order to keep perennial weeds under control. Common perennial weeds include quack grass, dandelion, and curly dock. So another method we can use-- and hear me out, this is gonna sound a little counterintuitive to everything we've just said-- but you can also cultivate your soil with something like a cultivator. Cultivating is a great method to use if either you can't get access to mulch or if you have a ton of baby weed seedlings that are just a couple of inches tall, and it isn't practical to pull or cut all of them. When cultivating, disturb the top one to two inches of soil, and this will prevent weed seedlings from gaining a foothold. So,

final tip for success

vigilance is key, and this probably comes as no surprise. You'll be amazed at how quickly weeds grow in your garden over the summer, especially after a good summer rain so spending even 15 - 30 minutes in your garden per week just to stay on top of things can make a huge difference. Well, there you have it. I hope you understand now a little bit more about these plants we refer to as weeds, and also realize that if you have them, nature's trying to tell you something. Our job as gardeners is to create as stable a system as possible. So with that in mind, happy gardening and we'll see you next time.