how do you keep the weeds out??

[bumcat]

We have a pretty large vegetable garden but cant seem to keep the weeds out. What can we use that wont harm the vegetables? It's getting frustrating to deal with.
Just want to say I dont post over here much but I do read and check out all the pics over here...

 

[DixieDreamer]

I have a small Mantis tiller that I use for the sides and walkways of my vegetable garden. I hand weed or use the three pronged cultivator tool on the actual wide rows of plants. I find what works best is to devote an hour or so a week to weeding... 1/2 hour about every three days keeps me on top of it. If I let it go longer than that... then I end up doing a great big LONG undertaking to catch up and it gets overwhelming. A little at a time is more manageable. I do not use preen or products like that in my vegetable garden. I will occassionally use it in a flower bed if I am having a real problem with weeds... but try to NOT as it hurts butterflys and other "nice" bugs.

Another tactic I use with the vegetable garden is that I plant in a wide row. This creates a thick row of plants that once established shade out any weeds below them. The key is to keep them weed free until well established ... but as the season progresses - there are less and less weeds as they cannot compete for sunshine with the bigger vegetable plants.

Just some ideas.

 

[Tulirose]

bumcat, you asked the million dollar question. Wouldn't we all wanna know the secret to keeping the weeds out... PERMANENTLY!!

I don't do veggies. And my yard is overrun with weeds, so I have no authority to answer your question! LOL! As DixieDee pointed out, I also try to manually remove the weeds but I don't do it as often as I should.

Also, interesting information DixieDee gave about Preen. I never used it before but brought some this year and spread it out in different areas in April, I think it was. I really haven't seen much of a difference, however.

 

[bumcat]

Thanks for the replies. My veggie garden is about the size of 2 swimming pools. My husband pulls the weeds by hand about once every two weeks but by then it's pretty bad. He is talking about downsizing and putting a wood frame around each different vegetable that he plants and then putting something down in the walk areas. I like the wide row idea that you suggested, that would help.
We had a small tiller but it broke so we have been renting a big one right before each planting time. I'm hoping to get dh a new one for fathers day. Maybe that would help.
Every time I watch the HGTV channel I see such nice veggie gardens and not one weed, LOL!! Makes me jealous!

 

[Mamu]

Hi Bumcat, nice to see you here on the F&G forum. As Tuli said "The million dollar question" It the gardener's scourge, a task that never ends.

There are lots of different answers but it all comes down to one answer, there is no easy solution. Gardens are lots of work.

Veggie gardens: It's very important to keep the soil loose here. A potato rake works great in between the rows, but you still need to hand pick around the plants. I use grass clippings on the rows when the soil finally gets warm. This helps block some weeds and also helps to keep the soil moist. Never let the soil get hard this makes your work more difficult.

Flower gardens: Some people use a weed inhibitor, this is fine for a small garden but I find them too expensive and I'm not crazy about using chemicals, if they kill weeds they also harm other things. I have choosen to use mulches. They do work. I use a pine mulch, I still need to airate the mulch and soil at least once a month. Most of my flower gardens have become a lot easier over the years. I turm last years mulch into the soil on all my gardens, then apply new mulch. This makes for a busy spring, but most of my flower gardens remain weed free through the growing season.

 

[bumcat]

Speaking of grass clippings, I have another question and forgive me if this is a dumb question.
We have two large composts piles that we put all our grass clippings in and eventually use the compost for the garden.
If the grass clippings contains some weeds (not a lot) are we aggravating the problem even more? We dont put the compost in the garden until it turns to dirt but I still wonder if were causing more problems. thanks again.
You're right gardens are lots of work but so rewarding.

 

[DixieDreamer]

Weeds in the compost pile CAN cause problems if the compost did not properly cook all the way through. If a compost pile has properly gotten hot and turned often enough to cook throughout... then weed seeds are destroyed. However, if this does not happen correctly, then weed seeds will survive only to be planted nicely on your freshly turned soil when you spread your compost!

 

[bumcat]

Thanks DixieDreamer - I'll have to check with dh on that, not sure if he is waiting long enough.

 

[MomE@Home]

I invite my DM over to pull weeds LOL ! She LOVES to weed ! I use the square foot garden method in raised beds for my veg. garden. I tried the classic way but found that it was too easy for the weeds to take over.