Zen of Garden Weeding

Garden maintenance is often viewed as a necessary evil, but need to be rethought today on Southern Gardening.

Instead of resisting weeding, try embracing this important aspect of garden caretaking. Despite the weather when our flowering plants may be having difficulty, you can be sure that the weeds are thriving, popping seemingly overnight. And if you let these garden invaders get out of control, well, you might as well just move. But if you stay on top of the situation weeding doesn’t become a big deal. In fact, weeding by hand can actually become therapeutic, isn’t that what our garden is for? I like sitting on my garden scoot and allowing my mind to wander away from the daily trials and tribulations. And by using non chemical weed control you’re taking care of your landscape in an organic and responsible manner. Hand pulling weeds after a rain is the trick to be efficient. The moist ground will give up its weed with little resistance. Simply grab the weed close to the ground and tug. Ten to 15 minutes a day is really all it takes to keep landscape beds weed free. It makes a huge difference when you pull the weeds before they go to seed as they produce seed in truly prodigious numbers. Once the weeds are pulled add that layer of mulch. A layer of mulch helps keep the garden weed free. Bark and pine are my mulches of choice.

Until next time, I’m horticulturist Gary Bachman enjoying our Southern Gardening.