Help! Weeds get out of Control!

[jenniferde]

Okay, so I am fairly new to the gardening thing. Over the last 2 years I have planted gardens, I am out there everyday weeding. But it never fails about 2 months into the thing the weeds take off better than my plants. They get completely out of control and I am out there for hours. My garden is only 12 ft by 21 ft. It is not huge by any means. I am seriously busting my hump to fight these things off and unfortunately they do end up taking over some of my vegetables.
My dad and I are scratching our heads. The first year I used vegatable food to help them grow. When my weeds took over I stopped thinking that might have something to do with it. This last year I didn't use any plant food and I was very disappointed in how some of my vegetable plants were not to big or didn't even come close to the amount of food they did the year before.
So Dad and I were at the store and we found Preen, #1 anybody ever use this stuff?? Do I need to be concerned with it??
#2 We also found lanscaping type weed cloth stuff, we were thinking of trying that.

I am just looking for any type of advice i can get before I plant this garden in the next coming weeks.

BTW my neighbor has a garden too, she hardly ever weeds it and guess what no weeds, she doesn't know what to tell me.

HELP!:confused:

[msmeg]

when you tilled your new garden bed you turned up millions of weed seeds and they grew,

If any went to seed the population grew so you need to stop them from growing. lightly howing as they sprout will take care of many of them and then you only have to pull those that got larger and were hidden by the plant

If You plant seeds and use preen your verrie seeds do not grow either. I would prefer to mulch rather than use a chemical... shreded newspaper works great. grass clipping work just put a thin layer at a time down .

Keep at the weeds and prevent them from going to seed it will get better the next year

[lilypotter]

How to Control Out-of-Control Weeds:

If the Weeds Are Young and Tender
1. Mow the young weeds down with a lawn mower or a string trimmer.
2. Turn them under with a shovel (the hard way) or with a rototiller (the easy way). This is actually plowing, the same as the pioneers did. Young weeds will quickly decompose, adding nutrients and improving the texture of your existing soil.
3. Plant your garden and then lay down a layer of mulch to prevent weeds from returning. Lay down a thick layer of mulch once the garden has been planted.
4. Pull new weeds by hand as they appear.

If the Weeds Have Gone to Seed
1. Remove the top growth of mature weeds (weeds that have formed seeds) from large areas by mowing or with a string trimmer. Do not compost the top growth unless your compost pile heats up enough to sterilize the seeds. (Unsterilized seeds will germinate and grow.) Rinse the machine once you have finished to prevent spreading weed seeds.
2. Turn the soil over with a shovel (the hard way) or with a rototiller (the easy way). Dig down into the soil to a depth of 10 to 12 inches. Remove any large roots or rocks you find in the soil.
3. Water the soil. This will germinate the next generation of weeds left from the fallen seeds. (This step will take 7 to 21 days.) Keep the soil moist at all times.
4. Remove the young weeds that germinate by cultivating the soil to disturb the roots or by spraying a nonselective herbicide such as Round-Up or Finale.
5. Repeat steps three and four to remove any remaining weeds from the area.
6. Turn the soil one final time, adding organic compost, rotted manure or other soil amendments to improve the nutrient value and texture of the soil.

[Sammy70]

We moved into our house 4 years ago and had very similar problems as we started growing veg. Our nemesis was ground elder - - any ting bit of root left just grows back in no time.

We worked hard at it and tring to get out every little bit and over time we're winning.

I've heard good things about the cloth but you need to lay it down for a long time. May be worth putting it down and cutting small crosses in it - then planting through them to minimise sunlight to the weds.

Good luck.

Sammy

[nofeargardener]

Bummer! Been there before. Not fun. If you're concerned about using chemicals on or near the stuff you're going to eat, you can try a natural mulch.

Once your plants are established, do a full weeding of your garden. Then take your grass clippings and lay down a thick layer (an inch or two) over all the soil. You can continue to add clippings throughout the season, as they breakdown. This will help keep weeds down, water & heat in, and also helps provide beneficial nitrogen... the natural way. An added benefit is that it will also save you room in your yard waste container - possibly saving you money!

If you don't have enough grass to accumulate the amount of clippings you need, You can purchase a bale or two of straw from your local farm & garden center.

Hang in there!!!!
Mike

[pharmerphil]

We garden almost 9000 sq, ft. Probably add another 100 this year..
That being said, I have gardened this area for many years, organically, and have long ago gotten the majority of weeds ousted from the gardens..as was mentioned above...
my best advice:
GET A HEAD START...
Once you till/plow/turn your bed to plant...PLANT as soon as possible, if not right away...this gets you a few days head start on those weed seeds that MSMEG spoke about:
"the ones you just turned up"

Be Less concerned/more tolerant:
although no one wants a bed of weeds to mow in the fall....
weeds are great at bringing up nutrients in their LONG roots, to "just below" the soils surface..
These micro-nutrients are unavailable to the shorter rooted Veggies in most cases...as stated above, just remove the seed heads...

Now, even though we have a large garden, and I'm in my late 50's...I ONLY use a tiller twice a year, as soon as the garden is workable in the spring and again in the fall when we put it to rest...
The remainder of the time I PROWL the rows with my 2 hoes...scraping any would be problems off at the surface..
this approach IS NOT FEASIBLE...if you are a busy person...
Preen, well that's an option, but we are totally organic, Newspapers/News print (Non-shiny) is printed with soy ink...In past years when I knew I would be at the farmers markets or away working at other gardens I would lay down layers (2-3 sheets thick) in the walkways, and cover with grass hay...
Grass hay, cut at the proper time, far exceeds straw , and is cheaper (here anyway)
With straw. you may see oats growing here and there, Hay, typically laced with weed seeds (lambs quarter to mention but 1)

[GYO Mary]

I had a horrible time last year as well with the weeds. I was away more than I was here so that could have been part of it. This year, I'm going to try making individual raised beds and mulching with wood chips in the walkways. I'm also going to lay sheets of newspaper down around my vegetables and then mulch with grass clippings on top of that (mainly to hold it down).

I've also read that cardboard works better than newspaper if you can get your hands on some because it takes longer to breakdown.

[pharmerphil]

cardboard does last longer; however, paper lasts the season, and there is no squishy cardboard to pick back up!

[mdcatro57]

I agree with pharmerphill, cardboard does last longer but the last couple of years I have been putting a thick layer of old newspaper in my pathways and then using compost as mulch around the plants.

When you put the newspaper down make sure that you use your garden hose and wet it down good so it doesn't blow away. I sometimes cover the newspaper with grass clippings, my son own's a Lawn Mowing service so I can get all the grass clippings I want. After I put the grass clippings down I try to keep them damp too.

[pharmerphil]

I agree with pharmerphill, cardboard does last longer but the last couple of years I have been putting a thick layer of old newspaper in my pathways and then using compost as mulch around the plants.

When you put the newspaper down make sure that you use your garden hose and wet it down good so it doesn't blow away. I sometimes cover the newspaper with grass clippings, my son own's a Lawn Mowing service so I can get all the grass clippings I want. After I put the grass clippings down I try to keep them damp too.
Yes, that's the best thing I believe you can do MDCATRO..
I used to have a sickle bar mower, and I hooked up with a realator, kept his properties mowed down, and PILED grass in the walkways every season, had a wonderful garden every year.
I like the newspaper, we added straw or grass hay to cover the paper also.

[Starwynn]

I see some great advice here. Honestly, I use "intensive gardening" and companion planting to keep my weeds to a minimum, and watering to a minimum, too. I also do a lot of mulching with compost (or sometimes alfalfa hay depending on the plant) where there are gaps - that way I don't have many weeds. I only have had to week twice since we planted in early March, and my weeding too all of five minutes - probably a dozen little plants. I've done this before with intensive/block planting and had the same results, ironically also in another horrible drought year like we're having this year (worst since the 20's in Texas).