best way to deal with existing weeds in garden, more mulch?

[wisconsindead]

Speaking of volunteers, does anyone know of a list of seeds that do not survive freezing temperatures? I would assume freezing would kill at least some varieties...?

[bri80]

I think for most relevant plants here, the opposite may be true. A lot of seeds need a period of cold/freezing to break dormancy. This is how the species has adapted to survive winter - no point dropping seeds to have them germinate that same year, right before winter hit, and kills your offspring. If the seed doesn't germinate till after a cold period, it's much more likely to remain dormant until the next spring.

[jasonvanorder]

The strange thing is I put in the beds new this spring and have volunteer tomatoes coming up in one of them.

Did you put some compost in the beds? Everywhere I put my compost down, I get bunches of volunteer tomatoes. I think it is very strange - I don't get any other weeds from it. I get bunches of volunteer tomatoes and the very occasional volunteer potato or pepper or squash, and nothing else.

All that hoeing still sounds like a lot of work and it doesn't work for me. I don't plant in rows. I plant very densely in raised beds with lots of companion planting and intercropping. I think the density helps keep weeds down as well as the mulching. I use mixed green and brown mulch -- fall leaves and grass clippings, straw and pulled weeds, etc. I don't get weeds from it and it is very effective at suppressing weeds.

Yeah the fill is a mix of topsoil composted yard waste and a touch of sand to keep it from clumping too much. Most of them I pulled because I have way too many tomato plants already (18). I left 1 by the carrots just because the little bugger went from nothing to bearing fruit in like the blink of an eye.

[jal_ut]

Lots of good ideas. You just have to try some things. Hope you find something that works for you. One thing for sure, your garden plants will do much better if they don't have to compete with weeds.
Hoe, hoe, hoe.

[pointer80]

Thanks all, Some great info as usual.

[Taiji]

80 % of my garden work is watering.

One good thing about living in an arid zone is that weeds are less of a problem than in other places. And, I don't water overhead which helps. If I watered the whole thing from overhead I would have a lot of weeds. Now we are in the southwestern monsoon season so more weeds will sprout up in the garden aisles. But, not a big deal!

I have lots of tomatoes volunteer every year from the last year. They almost always turn out to be cherry tomatoes. I leave them if they happen to be in a place where there's some space for them. Even put little stakes in for them.

[ID jit]

Sounds like brute force time. I did this once in a heavily weeded garden and it worked out well. Weeds were so bad the plants were dead or close to it.

Went down the rows carefully with a string trimmer. Laid 20' x 2' strips really heavy duty, water permeable, weed supressing, landscape fabric down the rows on the chopped up weeds Held the fabric in place with bricks. This decreased the hand weeding to just around the plants. After the hand weeding around the plants I put down several inches of clean grass clippings.

After a couple of weeks, I lifted the fabric and went after the weeds that popped back up again between the rows with a string trimmer again and put the fabric back down and repeated the head weeding and mulching.

Have been using the fabric and clean grass clippings since.

My thinking is that the grass clippings may be stealing some N and H2O, but it is far less then the unchecked weeds would be stealing. Have also found the worms seem to love the grass clippings and leave a lot of casting behind.

[jal_ut]

You have received loads of ideas from the group. One thing for sure: Your plants will do much better if you can keep the weeds out! Have a great garden!

[Gary350]

Seeds in the soil causes weeds. No seeds, no weeds.

[gumbo2176]

Speaking of volunteers, does anyone know of a list of seeds that do not survive freezing temperatures? I would assume freezing would kill at least some varieties...?

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway is designed to keep their massive cache of seeds at -18C which is the equivalent of -0.4F. So it would appear freezing seeds at least as low as that temperature has little to no effect on them.

[rainbowgardener]

Seeds in the soil causes weeds. No seeds, no weeds.

well sort of.... weed seeds are also blown in, float in with rain runoff, are carried in on the feet of birds and other critters, etc... Also many weeds spread by underground runners and can spread long distances that way.

Weeds are ubiquitous!!

[ID jit]

After several years of heavy duty landscape fabric and clean grass clipping mulch, I have very few weeds to pull.

Volunteers from the compost pile, mostly cherry tomatoes and sometime a squash or two
Crab grass, which I am pretty sure is blown in and isn't that bad to deal with.
Generic, unidentified weed, pretty sure it is a blow in too, local area has a lot of it.

The way I have things set up, only have to weed a narrow strip between where I stop mulching an inch or so before the plants. Once the seeds germinates and the plants grow a free true leaves, I mulch right up to and around the plants with 2" - 3" of clean grass clipping and overlap that onto the strips of fabric. Have also found the the grass clipping tend to stay dry on top which is good for keeping low hanging green beans dry and off the soil. Still feels a little weird mulching beets, carrots, radishes (after thinning) and onions this way, but I haven't seen any ill effect yet.

After I pulled the lettuce from between the tomato plants, it took me less then 10 minuets to weed the 2 20' rows (2 rows of 4 spaced 4' apart).

[jal_ut]

Weeds are a fact of life. If you are going to garden you will need to spend some time weeding. Plan on it. Here the weed seeds come on the wind, they come in the irrigation water, and some of course just grow up and bear seed in my garden because I didn't get them pulled. Then there are those weeds with the persistent roots that even if the top growth is cut off the root will send up more growth. To get these, you actually have to get all the root up and toss it in the garbage can. Yes gardeners are likely to spend more time weeding than any other activity.