WEED CONTROL
Spring Weed Guide
(Information gathered with credits to the Old Farmers Almanac, GrowVeg blog, Margaret Boyle’s blog and the Petworth News from April 23 2018 article by Catherine Piacente and a Chemical page from Pennington Lawn and Garden that had good weed information on it.)
Weeds can be both annuals and perennials. A weed is anything growing in the wrong place. Inspect your plot regularly! You want to remove weeds throughout the season – the younger they are, the easier they are to pull. As weeds grow their roots disrupt the roots of your young plants; they deplete nutrients; take available water; and can block the sun.
Annual weeds– grow, flower, seed and die within 1 year. (example: chickweed) They are often the ones that show first in the Spring. You want to get them before they drop their seed. So goes the saying: “1 year seeding means 7 years weeding”
Perennials – Plants like dandelion, mugwort, lily weed, creeping grasses, bindweed – don’t die in the winter – they weather in their roots which allow them to re- emerge in later Spring with the warmth. They have creeping root systems. The use of cardboard or dark plastic for one full growing season can be useful to combat these weeds – it won’t kill them, but it will make them easier to spot for pulling.
- Dig these with a fork or hand claw (Be careful, however, not to puncture our hoses.)
- Remove the roots that can grow back from the smallest piece.
- Use the sieves that we have in the garden shed to remove as many of the root pieces as possible.
- - Try to get these as soon as they appear and pull (Don’t compost these as they will regenerate!)
