Ghastly weeds

Bloody weeds! It’s starts with one and before you know it, they have multiplied in countless numbers, strangled your garden plants, and have stolen all available nutrients from your garden plants, leaving you feeling overwhelmed and deflated. In all my years gardening, I can’t think of any other gardening task that causes so much frustration than weeding. If you want a garden to be proud of, weeds must be eradicated! Now, rather than spending all my time whingeing about weeds, here are some ways to take back control of your garden and have your neighbours going ‘Oh, aaahhh’ rather than ‘Tut Tut’ when they walk past your front garden.

The first decision to make in your war against weeds is to decide on what strategy you are going to use to take back control. For example, are you going to spray with herbicide or hand weed? The most common herbicide used to combat weeds is glyphosate. This comes under many different brand names, the most common being RoundUp. Glyphosate in all its guises has had a lot of bad publicity in recent years due to claims of it being harmful to both your health and the environment, with many countries pushing to restrict or ban it outright due to claims it is carcinogenic. In recent years, France, the Netherlands and Belgium have successfully banned this herbicide for household use.

Personally, I don’t like using glyphosate but do use it sparingly to get some fast results for my clients. If I do choose to use it, I make sure I then plant out the garden and mulch to minimise the weeds returning. Planting and mulching help stop weeds returning by preventing light hitting the seeds leading to germination. Groundcover plants are particularly effective in preventing weeds returning due to their carpeting habit. One thing to keep in mind if you do choose to use glyphosate is that certain weeds such as Ivy, Wandering Jew and Black Nightshade, as well as many broadleaf weeds and grasses are resistant to it. Also, over time many weeds have evolved to become resistant leading to the creation of ‘super weeds’ which over time are likely to be more harmful to the environment and increasingly difficult to manage.

Aside from spraying, hand weeding is an effect albeit a labour-intensive strategy. If you can remove them before they set seed this is a bonus! I know that many people find hand weeding exceedingly boring, but the result is worth it. It is also a great opportunity to listen to a podcast or get lost in some music. If like me in my home garden, you feel that the amount of weeding needed is overwhelming, please don’t be discouraged. Target areas and don’t move on to the next area until you have replanted (if required) and mulched the area. Mulching is a great practise for all garden beds as it reduces moisture loss in the soil and keeps weeds at bay by preventing light hitting and germinating weed seeds. If your garden has an extreme quantity of weeds and the soil is infested with weed seeds, I recommend digging out the topsoil and replacing it with fresh premium garden soil from a reliable garden centre. I know this sounds like an extreme measure to take but it saves you becoming a slave to weeding and not getting your garden established. It is also particularly important to remove weeds if you live near a nature reserve as they can decimate native flora, clog waterways and destroy habitat for native birds and animals.