Flower gardens can be relatively minimum maintenance if you control the weeds from the very start—weeds rob nutrients and water from your flowering plants. So how to fully remove those pesky weeds? Chemical weed control harms the environment in many ways. Using the sun to bake the weeds, a process called solarization, kills the weed seeds but also kills the good organisms in the soil that you want. Some suggest using common household items such as salt, vinegar, or Epsom salts to kill weeds, but these too can be harmful to the beneficial organisms in the soil. The aim is to remove the weeds while maintaining and promoting healthy soil.
So, what to do? First, choose plants that are fungus resistant and plant them close together to crowd out insidious weeds. You can also use plants to cover bare spots where weeds can take hold. And you should practice simple, time-proven weed cultivation using weeding tools, such as a heavy-duty weeding hoe. Nutsedges and purslane, both perennial weeds, tend to be especially resilient. The best method for eliminating them is by hand pulling.
A timely weed-prevention practice is to cut off weed flowers before they set seed. You may leave the weed but at least remove the flowers and future seeds. And definitely use a weed-free mulch and apply it early in the spring before annual weeds germinate. Pile fallen leaves in a layer 2 to 3 inches thick in the fall and this will be great mulch the following spring. Timing is so important! Don’t apply mulch too late in the spring, otherwise the weeds will germinate and grow through the mulch. Don’t use treated lawn clippings if the turf was treated with herbicides or chemical fertilizer products. And finally, don’t over-mulch because you risk suffocating the plants. This last reminder applies to flowers, shrubs, and trees.
When removing weeds with long taproots such as dandelions, it is important to get the whole root. If you miss a small piece of root, the weed will regrow. A tool such as a dandelion weeder can help.