Weeds will emerge in a newly installed garden the first few years, even if you weeded your garden beforehand or applied mulch, guaranteed. There are several reasons for this: When new garden beds and plants are installed, the soil is disturbed and any remaining weed seeds in the soil come to the surface and germinate. Plus any leftover weed roots and rhizomes in the soil will continue to grow. Other weeds are brought in by the wind, wildlife, clothing, landscape equipment, bird feeders, and are even in the soil of your new plants.
Here are my tips for weeding:
- Since your new plants are small in size initially, there’s is some space in between the plants in your garden. Weeds will try to occupy the bare spots. At the same time, your new native plants will spread, and also occupy the bare spots forming “A living mulch“, which is what you want.
- Here is a list of common weeds. Two phone apps I use to help me identify is iNaturalist and PlantNet. I use both to cross-check the results. Remember the definition of a weed according to dictionary is: a plant that is not valued where it is growing and is usually of vigorous growth.
- There a some weeds that are considered invasive, so prioritize removing these if you have them, especially if you live near or adjacent to a natural area like a forest preserve, park or waterway: Common Invasive Plants
- Some native plants spread more than others. If a native plant is spreading too much, do a little editing. That’s perfectly normal. Before removing a native plant, think about the pros and cons first: 1) you create a bare spot and soil disturbance for more weeds to grow 2) you’re removing a plant that might be providing competition for other weeds or 3) the plant you’re removing might provide critical wildlife habitat.
- Remember some plants considered weeds are native and some non-native weeds are even good for wildlife. More info: “Why can’t weed be friends”.
- There are some natives that are considered too aggressive in smaller gardens. The Cup Plant is one example and a plant I don’t use for this reason, although I have one in my yard. Two plants that invade naturally and you may want to control or remove because they can take over, are Canada Goldenrod, and Tall Goldenrod.
- You can also add more plants or replace plants that did not survive by filling in the bare spots to provide weed competition. I like to use some “spreaders in my design for this very reason.
- There are a lot of weed tools, but my favorites are a hand pruner and short handle forked dandelion puller. I also like to weed when the soil is a little moist but not too moist because you can damage soils by compacting the pockets between soil particles that air, water and roots need. Never dig in or stand on very moist or wet soils. Remember whenever you disturb the soil, there is potential for weed seeds to come to the surface. Be careful not to remove native seedlings that are part of your living mulch. Here are useful websites for woodland and prairie seedling identification: Seedling.
- Over mulching might control some weeds, but also prevents a living mulch from forming. This is also the reason why products such as Preen are not recommended either. Over mulching is also detrimental to some wildlife including ground nesting bees. A living mulch with undisturbed bare soil between plants is ideal.
To prevent weeds from taking over it is so important to weed regularly the first few years, and never let weeds go to seed. There are numerous methods for removing weeds, so please do your research. Eventually your garden will form a living mulch, but you’ll will always have to do a little weeding, but definitely not as much. If you need ongoing maintenance help like weeding or invasive plant control, please let me know. I found a couple of knowledgeable people after much searching.
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