Should You Hand Dig Your Weeds?

Generally there are three choices in weeding - small, medium, and Oh, No What Is That. The easiest way is to remove the weeds when they are small. Before we dig into the ways of dealing with small weeds, let's briefly tackle medium and large weeds.

Dealing with Large Oh, No What Is That Weeds

Pulling up large weeds is not recommended if they are close to your good plants because if their roots are tangled together you may severely damage your good plants. So pulling is limited to medium sized weeds and large weeds that are distant from your good plants. Pulling weeds is slow hard work.

It is faster and safer to cut medium and large weeds at or just below the soil surface. A knife, garden hoe, or wheel hoe can be used on medium and large weeds. Remember that you want to cut the weeds off right at, or slightly below, the soil line. A tool like our grape hoe works well for large areas and paths, while any small sharp hoe will work well close to your good plants. A wheel hoe fitted with a Stirrup Hoe (also called an Oscillating Hoe) will also work very well for open areas and pathways.

If you let your weeds reach the medium to large size, then you will need to keep cutting them back during the entire gardening season. Once the season ends you should dig out the roots of the large weeds, especially perennial weeds.

Removing Small Weeds Is The Best

It is indeed best to manage your garden so that you only have to deal with small weeds. The secret to this has been known to farmers for many years, but rarely used by gardeners. Now that gardeners are kicking the herbicide habit it is time for this weed secret to be shared.

The secret is knowing where weed seeds sprout, and when they are easiest to kill.

Two rules of winning the war on weeds are consistent effort and getting an early start. The problem with most attempts at managing these weeds is that we gardeners tend to fight them a while and then let up. Once they have a chance to get some green leaves up in the sunshine for a few weeks they have replenished their reserves and we basically get to start over. Remember, never let 'em up for air.

It doesn’t matter to us whether you want desert landscaping, lush lawns or some type of landscaping in between, we can help.  We serve businesses like yours all over the Phoenix Metro Area. To find out how give us a call at 623-848-8277.

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Greens Keeper Landscape Maintenance, LLC

623-848-8277

http://www.commerciallandscapecare.com

greenskeeperllc@cox.net