Warmer weather means you will be spending more time outside in your garden and yard. Plants and trees are in bloom, the grass is growing again, and you will be faced with doing some landscape maintenance to keep things looking good.
One issue to prepare for is weeds. You should try and weed your garden or yard at least once a week to keep things under control. However, if you have young children or are interested in organic gardening or landscaping, you may wish to avoid using chemical weed killers or pesticides.
Try weeding with your hands and tools to spruce up your garden. Source: Shutterstock
The good news is that there are many organic and pesticide-free ways to keep weeds at bay. Sunset Magazine recommends pulling up weeds up with your hands or using special gardening tools, such as gardening hoes. You can even use a simple screwdriver to remove weeds from cracks between pavement. Other suggestions include mowing, putting down mulch or ground covers, and smothering.
If you go the route of mulch, you can use an organic mulch such as straw, grass clippings, shredded bark, or leaves, according to OrganicLife Magazine. Mulches keep sunlight from helping weeds grow. To amplify the effect of organic mulch, you can place a layer of newspaper, kraft paper, or cardboard below the mulch.
Solarization is another strategy recommended by OrganicLife that uses the sun’s energy to “cook” weeds. This involves getting rid of all weeds in your garden, then moistening the soil and placing a plastic cover over the area for six weeks.
Finally, Good Housekeeping has a few ideas for homemade weed killers. Some that haven’t already been mentioned are pouring boiling water or vinegar on weeds, using salt as a weed barrier on lawn edgings, and other places a mower can’t reach, making physical barriers out of pressure-treated decking, outnumbering weeds with other beneficial plants, and even eating edible weeds!
Have weed problems in your yard? Contact Lifescape for help with landscape design and landscape maintenance.
