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Wednesday, June 22, 2011

In the Garden: Weeds

In any garden, weeds can be a difficult thing to contend with. And as you can see in the photo below, even the small weeds when left unattended can overtake a garden.
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I find the crucial time for weeding is early, right after you have planted and your seeds have yet to sprout, or when your seedlings are still quite small. Generally at that point in the season you are watering daily in order to germinate the seeds (and checking frequently to see if anything has sprouted!). It is good to spend 15 minutes pulling out weeds, while they are small and have yet to develop a strong root system. Of course you need to continue weeding throughout the growing season... or do you?
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Some gardeners will let the weeds grow tall, harvest the crop, and turn the weeds under. This can be good for your garden too. The weeds will help the topsoil from eroding, and when they get turned under they will decompose and will provide nutrients for the soil. I will caution you, however, if you are planning on adopting the low maintenance style, then ensure your seeds germinate and become established before you let the weeds grow up and steal the nutrients and block the sunlight from your veggies or other plants.

What are your experiences with weeds and weeding?



2 comments:

  1. I tend to kill plants, actually! Lol. I think I just forget to water them, mainly. At least my cat will tell me when she's hungry. ;) But your theory about letting them grow a bit actually makes sense - just as long as they don't block out all the nutrients.

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  2. I am so happy to learn I might not have to spend the morning/afternoon/entire day weeding my garden tomorrow! All of my veggies are doing very well in the garden and are quite a bit larger than any of the weeds. I always thought you just had to pull em' out. I was keeping up on them quite well, but one sunny day here in Oregon, followed by rain and then more sun was all it took for an amazing amount of weeds and grass to start growing. I keep kidding that i'll have to mow it soon. I'm just gonna let them grow and direct any crazy looks over to your blog!

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