At Allett, one of the best gardening tips we advise is to make sure to stay on to of your garden and stay in control when it comes to weeds. National Weed your Garden Day is celebrated annually on the 13th June. The day was made to help raise awareness to gardeners of the invading vegetation and encourages them to grab their gardening equipment and take an extra 10 minutes when weeding to reduce the number of weeds in your garden and make it an overall healthier place for your plants to grow.Now, if you're new to gardening, aren’t sure why you need to take control of your weeds, or what they can to your garden do if you don’t, don’t worry. We’re going to discuss what weeds are, what can be done about them and the best solutions for reducing or getting rid of them entirely.
What a Weed Really is and Why We Call it a Weed.
The dictionary tells us a weed is “a valueless plant growing wild, especially one that grows on cultivated ground to the exclusion or injury of the desired crop”, or “any undesirable or troublesome plant, especially one that grows profusely where it is not wanted”. So a weed is basically any type of plant that is growing somewhere it shouldn’t be or isn’t welcome.
What Can Be Done and How Do I Remove Them?
Weeds not only affect the growth of nearby plants by competing for air, light, water and food, but they are unsightly. As well as this, they also grow quickly — very quickly — and if not maintained or reduced in good time can become overwhelming. By making sure you stay aware and on top of your current weed invasion the more chance you have at maintaining a pleasant garden. So what can you do:
Take up to ten minutes out of your day every day to weed your garden, rather than tackling them all at once. This could make it feel like less of a chore as your only spending up to ten minutes a day but making all the difference. This way you will have the control, and the weeds won’t!
Keep your younger plants alive longer by making sure any weeds are kept away from them. This gives your younger plants space and nutrients needed to grow.
Make sure soil is weed free before planting new plants. This means that if you’re pulling up any pesky weeds to make room for more welcome vegetation, make sure the weed’s roots come out with it and make is safer for anything your planting.
You can cover the soil along rows and between plants with bark to prevent weed growth.
When it comes to mowing your lawn, try to keep the edges of your lawn mowed low to reduce the chance of invasion or contagion from your neighbour's property.
If you own an Allett cartridge machine you can use the Verticut cartridge to help cut out lateral weeds. Verticutting in general will weaken the weeds.
So grab your gardening gloves and tools and do your part this national weed your garden day. For more information on maintaining your garden take a look at our monthly lawncare calendar.
Read more about national weed your lawn day here.
