No matter what you do they keep on coming. My current approach to weeds is don’t use chemicals and pull them out one by one. As you can see that approach is not working very well, I only have two hands and not very much leisure time. The way I see it I have three options.
1-Live with it, this is Florida and weeds are part of the landscape. My problem is that I am a neat freak and this approach will eat at my insides,
2-Kill the bastards use every chemical known to man to take them out. I couldn’t live with myself; I would be killing every other good organism in the garden and polluting the aquifer.
3 – Continue to pull them one by one even if my arthritic hands are telling me to stop.
What do you do?
1-Live with it, this is Florida and weeds are part of the landscape. My problem is that I am a neat freak and this approach will eat at my insides,
2-Kill the bastards use every chemical known to man to take them out. I couldn’t live with myself; I would be killing every other good organism in the garden and polluting the aquifer.
3 – Continue to pull them one by one even if my arthritic hands are telling me to stop.
What do you do?
10 comments:
How about getting ahead of them..then mulching? I say that because that's my goal this year. Mulch before they arrive and keep doing it. I might try newspaper under the mulch. I've heard that will kill the new weeds. But if there were a magic cure, we wouldn't have any weeds.
Some weeds are pretty, my neighbor found some baby blue eyes along the road, she pulled them and shared with me. But I do hear you about pulling weeds...my hands still hurst from pulling that invasive grass!!
The garden looks good though.
Since I am a new gardener, so I put mulch right after I open a new flower bed. It helped some, but the weeds still come, probably not as bad as if not mulch it.
You can spray them with household vinegar full strength mixed with a cup of dishwashing liquid. Just don't get any on the adjacent plants or it will kill them also. Vinegar is safe and biodegradable.
DO NOT add salt to the spray as some recipes suggest.
I do a combination of #1 and #3. Pull till my arthritic hands and back and knees can take it no more. Then tolerate what weeds are left until the body recovers, when I will start all over again. Weeds are giant cockroaches of sci-fi proportions in the Florida plant world!!!
I smother a lot of mine....some newspapers and mulch or leaves on top...
I love those colours - beautiful. Honestly, I really wouldn't know what I'd do. I often wonder if I'd like gardening on a plot of land, as opposed to pots on the balcony. Sometimes I think the latter would be great esp when I see bigger plants that I cannot have in my small space. But then I think about how hassle free it is for me now...
Anything but #2. Bugs and weeds are nature's way of leveling out our great weather!
I love your title...and how true it is. I cover the soil with thick layers of newspaper and then mulch heavily. It seems to suppress the growth of weeds and minimizes their numbers in the long term. Good luck!
I've always had success with the newspaper + mulch solution ... I do this just before the growing season and it's worked well. I still have to pluck out the occasional weed here and there, but overall it's been a great answer to those annoying pests.
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