How
to deal with Garden Weeds
Weeds
are simply plants which are growing in the wrong
place. They are usually the native plants which
are best adapted to the environment where they
grow; sometimes they have been introduced in the
past for culinary, medicinal or decorative purposes.
As the garden weeds compete with garden plants
for space, water, and light, we must constantly
thwart nature and eradicate them, or they will
swamp the more delicate specimens. Even in a "wild"
garden the native plants must be controlled to
give the more pleasing effect we seek. The seeds
they produce can lie dormant in the soil for many
years, germinating when the soil is cultivated.
Garden
weeds can be categorised as follows:
Annual
- germinate and mature in one season and die away
leaving a supply of seed to germinate in the autumn
or the following season, eg Cleavers, Groundsel.
Biennial - take two growing seasons to mature
enough to produce seed, then die away. In the
first season they germinate in early summer and
most grow as a rosette of leaves at soil level,
developing a long taproot. In the second season
they produce an upright stem which flowers and
seeds. The garden weeds are more easily removed
in the first year by uprooting or treating with
a contact herbicide at the seedling stage, but
a systemic or translocated agent is more likely
to be successful. If the flowering stem is prevented
from growing the plant may become perennial, it
is the production of seed which causes it to die
naturally. This can be seen with Thistles and
Ragwort when they grow in mown grass; the growing
point of the basal rosette is below the sweep
of the mower blades.
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Perennial - these garden weeds form a storage
system in their roots or stems and live for many
seasons. They are the most difficult to remove
as they have a number of methods to ensure their
survival. First they can produce seed which, as
for Annuals and Biennials, are dispersed by various
means to reach new ground as well as the surrounding
area. The other big advantage these garden weeds
have is that they can regenerate if the topgrowth
is removed or when the herbaceous perennials die
away naturally to survive adverse conditions such
as winter frosts. This perenniating system takes
a number of forms, usually it is underground as
fleshy roots, stems or leaves, in the case of
bulbs. So when eliminating these garden weeds
the underground parts usually have to be removed
or destroyed to prevent regrowth. Some have roots
or underground stems which creep around , eg.
Bindweed, Ground-elder. Other garden weeds spread
using rooting stems or runners, eg. Creeping Buttercup.
Many weeds can mature in a matter of weeks and
produce seed, if the growing conditions are favourable,
allowing them to have several generations in a
season. These are known as Ephemeral plants due
to this transient behaviour. Examples are Chickweed
and Hairy Bittercress, which are usually categorised
as Annuals, although the latter can be a Biennial
if it germinates in the autumn.
When
removing garden weeds weed it is important in
most cases to uproot all of it and not to "graze",
otherwise it will soon re-grow. Use a hand fork
or a hand grubber (looks like a claw with 3 or
4 talons) to loosen the roots of larger garden
weeds.
For perennial weeds with deep or widespread roots,
a systemic weedkiller such as Glyphosate may be
required, this will be taken down into the roots
and kills the weed in about 7 to 10 days. If you
are opposed to filling the coffers of the multi-national
chemical companies and you have the time, then
mowing or strimming an area of Nettles or Ground-elder
will eventually eradicate theses garden weeds.
This method is not always feasible, eg.in a border,
but continually removing as many roots as possible
will eventually pay off, as the energy stored
in any remaining roots will run out, so be persistent
and don't allow garden weeds to grow enough leaves
to make more. Dandelion, Daisy, Pearlwort, Plantain
and Creeping Buttercup survive mowing, as they
form rosettes at ground level. If you do have
invasive garden weeds in your border tackle it
in the autumn or spring lifting the affected plants
and teasing the invader from their roots.
Use a fork when digging as it will tease the roots
loose, a spade will chop them up, thus multiplying
the problem. Garden weeds invading from adjoining
ground can be deterred with a barrier of thick
plastic buried vertically to a depth of about
30 cm and protruding above soil level by at least
10 cm (disguise it with a row of stones or gravel-board).
This is best done at the outset when preparing
the plot, but can be done later as a remedial
treatment.
scythes,
scythettes and various slasher tools
the
famous weedkey weed remover garden tool
more
on garden weeds including a weed identifier
even
more on garden weeds
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