As you plant and tend to your growing garden, the flowers begin to blossom, and fruits and veggies become to grow, but there’s one thing you start to notice. Weeds now sprout out of the soil. You take the time to pick a few here and there, but no matter how may you pull, another few seem to grow.
You’re now left wondering how to prevent weeds from growing in your beautiful garden. You’re faced with the question of how to stop the weeds and prevent more from popping up. You need to know how to keep your garden happy and healthy and weed-free before the weeds begin to take over.
Stop weeds in their tracks before it’s too late! Continue reading below for our guide on some of the best ways to prevent weeds in the garden.
Table of Contents
1. Schedule Routine Lawn Maintenance
By scheduling routine lawn maintenance, you can stay on top of the weed growth. Rather than having lawn care come in at random times when you feel the grass has grown too tall, schedule routine lawn care.
At the same time each week or month, have a lawn care service come in and manage the weeds in your lawn for you. These lawn care services know how to properly care for your lawn and garden and how to remove weeds and keep them from coming back.
Set up a day and time that’ll work best for you, and have the lawn service come and do the hard work for you.
2. Lay Mulch Down
Another way to keep the mulch from thriving in your garden is to lay mulch down. Your garden can benefit from mulch in several ways. When mulch is laid down, it creates cool and moist soil under your plants.
It’ll also prevent the weeds trying to grow under it from receiving sunlight. With mulch on top of the soil, the weeds won’t be able to thrive. Mulch also builds the perfect atmosphere for beetles and other insects that enjoy munching on weeds, which helps keep them at bay. Order mulch online, and use a mulch to reduce weeds, control soil temperature, increase water retention, and more.
Place about 2 inches of your mulch in the garden, but no more.
3. Cut the Tops Off
If removing the entire weed isn’t an option, then you can cut the tops off of them instead. Removing to top of the weed with a pair of loppers will ensure the annual weeds don’t begin to spread.
If the tops aren’t removed, the seeds will eventually fall down into the soil and more weeds will grow. The loppers are a great choice for poke or ragweeds. Brambles and thistles with prickly spots on them can be removed with the use of a string trimmer and blade.
The goal is to take the tops off before reseeding, which will force the weeds to use what food they’ve reserved and eventually die off.
4. Space Your Plants Properly
When planting your plants in the garden, be sure to space your plants out properly. You want to plant them close enough together to prevent sunlight from reaching the soil between them. You also want to plant them far enough away from one another to prevent the different plants from touching one another when fully grown.
Look into the type of plants your planting. How big will they be when fully grown? Speak with a gardening expert at your local nursery or garden shop about how far apart you should plant the seeds or juvenile plants.
When spaced out in a proper manner, your plants will block the sunlight from the soil and therefore block the weeds from growing.
5. Only Water Your Plants
When it comes time to water your garden, you’ll want to only water your plants. You can use a drip irrigation system circled around each plant, which will only water the soil and mulch under your plant. If there are weeds rooted deep beneath the soil, however, they can still grow with the use of the system.
On the other hand, you can water the plants yourself and be sure to only water the soil right around your plants’ roots. This will cause weeds in other areas of the garden to die off due to dehydration.
Healthy soil with a good mix of organic matter and good compost will add to the prevention of weed growth.
6. Watch for Weeds Early on
When you buy mulch, soil, and plants, there’s the chance that weed seeds are already in the soil or mulch waiting to sprout. When you bring a new plant home from the nursery, be sure to take the time to fully inspect the new plant.
Check for signs of small weed growth around the plant. If you notice a weed coming through the soil, even if it’s a small one, pull it out before planting your new plant in your garden. This will help stop the spread of the weeds before they ever have the chance to grow in your garden.
When laying down soil and mulch, be sure to inspect it every day for the first few weeks for signs of weeds. When you see a weed, remove it in its early stages.
7. Give Weeds Winter Competition
During the cold winter months, the majority of your plants in your garden might remain dormant. When this happens, stubborn weeds will begin to flourish. There are no other plants soaking up the sunlight or absorbing all the water in the soil.
The weeds have the garden to themselves and will take it over. To prevent this from happening, you’ll want to give your weeds a bit of competition. Plant a few winter season crops in your garden to compete for the nutrients the weeds desire.
Learn How to Prevent Weeds From Growing Today
Weeds can be stubborn pests that’ll take over your garden if you let them. It’s time to stop weeds in their tracks and learn how to prevent weeds from growing in your garden right now! Use our guide above to help you keep your garden’s weeds to a minimum.
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