How do I control weeds in my garden beds?
How do I control weeds in my garden beds?
Keeping ahead of weeds and controlling them when they are small is essential for good weed management. This requires persistence throughout the entire growing season to remove weeds as they emerge. There are essentially two types of weeds in our gardens, annuals and perennials.
Annual weeds grow rapidly, flower, set seed and die in a single season. New annual weeds, such as crabgrass, velvetleaf, purslane, knotweed, lambsquarter and foxtail, germinate from seeds each year.
Perennial weeds die back to ground level in fall but send up new growth in spring. Perennial weeds, such as dandelions, quackgrass, thistle, pokeweed and plantain, reproduce by seeds or may spread by creeping above or below ground stems or by spreading root systems.
Cultivation, hand pulling, mulches and herbicides are the primary means to control weeds in the home garden.
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