Gardening: Unlike daffodils, not all yellows are lovely…

Think dandelions! Along the North Fork last Friday they were out everywhere, so we can’t be far behind. The dandelion is the king of weeds — its tap root means you need a shovel, and any single weed when it goes to seed can pump out thousands more of its kind. That’s a lot of dandelions. That brings us to the subject of weeding, which actually deserves many words since the books written about it are lengthy.

To summarize, the key to weed control is prevention. You’ve probably heard the old adage, popular with gardeners, “One year’s seeds equals seven years’ weeds.” What you need to do is to stop the weeds you have from going to seed. Consistent attention is required. Weeds, like flowers (and weeds do flower), come in annual, biannual and perennial varieties.

Weeds compete with more desirable plants for space, nutrients, water and light. Because they tend to grow faster and with more vigor (as in “growing like a weed”!) than most garden flowers, they can easily overwhelm your seedlings. Their seeds can lie dormant for years in any given garden bed, ready to spring into action when nature gives them the go-ahead — for example if you’ve hoed carefully and now they’re buried less deeply.

As the seedlings’ size increases and the weeds’ size increases, however, both root systems will spread as they each begin to require greater amounts of water and nutrients. Experts estimate that weed and crop can co-exist harmoniously for no more than three weeks, so weed soonest. After three weeks, the weeds start winning!

Let’s discuss the two most frequently used methods for weed control — first among them is mulch. Bear in mind that this means weed-seed-free mulch, as in sterilized. Most bagged mulches that you buy from reliable companies have been sterilized, exactly for that reason, i.e. to kill weed seeds.

Most mulch available for free, and many municipalities grind up debris and turn it into mulch to give away to the general public, has not been sterilized. They don’t have the facilities for that kind of undertaking. But weed control is not the only reason to mulch — a 2- or 3-inch-deep covering of mulch will keep your plants’ root systems cool in summer and warm in winter, will prevent your soil from crusting over, will conserve moisture, and will make it harder for weed seeds to sprout. As it decays, it will add valuable organic material to the soil.

For flower beds, as opposed to vegetable gardens, pine chips/nuggets are, I think, preferable. Although many people use pine bark, I find that it tends to mat, and the matting allows the rain to run off, not what you want when it’s raining. If you’re mulching a vegetable garden, where sightliness is not an issue, you can use sawdust, wood chips, straw, newspapers, grass clippings or black plastic between the rows.

The second most frequently used system,  one that I use  religiously, is a vertical barrier. Although there are metal or plastic edgings available to separate your beds from the lawn, to prevent grass from migrating over, a clean, deep cut, at least 3 inches deep and several inches wide, will accomplish the same thing and do it less expensively.

So start weeding early, with an eagle eye!

Gardening Tip of the Week:

Make sure when you mulch that you don’t pile the mulch around the crown of the plant. Since mulch conserves moisture, what you don’t want is to keep the crown of the plant consistently wet — this is just an invitation to rot. The mulch should extend over the root system, but not touch the crown.