Maintaining The Lack of Weeds in Your Garden

If the perennial weeds are already cleared and only annual weeds (for example, groundsel with yellow flowers, bittercress with white flowers and cress-tasting leaves, speedwell with pretty blue saucer flowers), are your problem, it’s a good idea to cover the patch for a couple of weeks in early spring, next year. This helps warm the soil so you can plant or sow a couple of weeks earlier than if you left the patch open to the elements. Use sheets of clear plastic –it warms and dries the soil, and – transparent – encourages the germination of any dormant weed seed. When you uncover the patch to plant, these are easily cleared by hand or hoe and you will have a weed-seed-free bed. Fleece also works well.

The other key thing with weed control is to use a carpet of mulch to prevent any weed seed that drifts in from germinating in your soil. As you plant out your seedlings in a few weeks, lay a good 2 inch of mulch in between your rows. This should make your patch relatively weed-free through the summer and so easier to maintain.