Weeds Have Their Place In My Garden

When I first started gardening the biggest thing I was told by the experts was, "Keep up with the weeding and don't let them in, you'll never get rid of them." So, I kept up, most of the time, with the weeding. 

But I soon discovered something. Insects love weeds. Bees of all types were in the weeds. There were more insects around the fringe of my "perfect" garden than there were in the "weed free" areas. The light bulb came on over my head and this is what I do to promote a balanced garden that requires no insecticide spraying. 

I keep 2- 4' X 6' sunny raised bed sections of the garden as designated "weed" areas. As I do my weeding in the garden, I put the pulled weeds in the weed "OK" area. You don't have to get fancy. Sometimes I plant them and sometimes I just toss the weed into the area. I don't have to worry, the weeds will show up.

Dandelions, from the small front lawn,  are put in the weed zones and left alone. I use dandelion leaves in my salad. 

I get a lot of unknown flowers and they certainly attract pollinators. I read somewhere that these areas are great to produce beneficial insects. 

I even put a couple of homemade toad houses, stones, small containers of water, and small logs in the areas and sometimes toads show up. 

I treat these areas as equally important to other parts of the garden. They attract the first and last bees. 

 So as you can see, I like weeds as long as they know their place!

Keeping The Ground In The Garden Weed Free

They say weeds are plants with a bad reputation. I have battled weeds for years. I will tell you what works for me!

Why am I writing this post now?  Last week it was unusually warm. It should be about 10F, ground frozen, and snow should be on the ground.  It was in the 40F's so I decided to attack the weed problem to get ahead for next year.

Here are my constraints for weeding:
1. I cannot stand being in the hot sun in the summer for more than a half hour at a time. Usually I spend a half hour in the sun (full hat, long sleeve shirt) then need about a half hour out of the sun to rest.  I am a cold weather person.  I regularly wear shorts in 30F weather without a problem.
2. I have limited time for weeding on a daily basis.
3. Can't put the weeds into the compost bins so i have to bag them and take them to the dump.
4. Can't let the weeds grow and send seeds all over the garden. this will just make it worse next year.

Weed Control Possibilities:
1.  Spray weed killer - Won't use them. I try to grow natural, organic, and authentic in my garden.
2.  Flame weed killer - Never tried it.
3. Mow the weeds - My garden space is too crammed with plants and grow beds. I tried this and it took up too much time every day.
4. Wood mulch - The weeds just grew through the chips.
5. Rubber mulch - Never tried it.
6. Plastic weed blocker and wood mulch - This worked great and looked even better. But after a year the wood mulch decomposed and the weeds just grew in the mulch and I was back to square 1.
7. Plastic weed blocker, no mulch -

I reclaimed about 600 square feet of the garden by pulling weeds, clipping sticks, and trampling down grass. I laid the black weed blocker down. Most of the area will be filled with pots. I just laid the weed blocker down and overlapped sections by a foot. I used old pots to hold down the corners and edges. I'll figure out how to fasten it down in the spring. I like this kind of surface. You can keep it clean, still lets the water drain through, and with the pots filling the area looks good.

I was very lucky to have the time to take advantage of the warm weather. The other advantage is that anytime now the ground will be frozen and covered with snow. I have to make sure I have clear paths in the garden or I could trip over a hidden object and hurt myself.

It's nice to spend the time to get ahead and prevent a problem! I will have a future post on how I minimize weeds in the grow beds.