Saturday, May 30, 2026
What is the least favorite part of gardening? I'd say pulling weeds! So what are the tricks to keeping weeds to a minimum and pulling them so they don't grow back? Here is what I have learned.
1. Mulch! I only garden in my mulched flower beds. This is a huge time saver as it suppresses weeds, adds organic matter, keeps the soil temperature more consistent and keeps moisture in the soil. So, less weeding, less compost needed and less watering needed.
2. When you put new garden beds in, cover with cardboard. If you cover with cardboard, compost and mulch in the fall, you'll have a weed free bed ready to plant in come spring. Just add fertilizer and freshen the mulch. You don't need to kill or remove the grass before putting down the cardboard. A huge bonus is that earthworms love cardboard so they will be busy loosening and fertilizing the soil so it is much easier to plant in come spring.
3. Pull weeds before they set seed, regardless of the season. There are hot weather weeds and cool weather weeds and each sets seeds at different times. Be sure to pull weeds starting in late winter and keep pulling all the way through late fall. You'll save yourself a lot of time over the long run.
4. Most weeds are easier to pull when the soil is moist versus dry and hard as a rock. Get after the weeds after a rain or watering.
5. Make sure you get the roots out when you pull a weed. Use a trowel to get underneath the roots if you need to. Most weeds in my mulched bed will be right back out in full glory within a week if I only pulled their top off.
*A good example is a dandelion; it has a long taproot that it will just regrow from if you don't get the whole root out.
*Others like Bermuda grass have rhizomes that spread like mint does underground. If you don't get all the white roots out, you'll just have many more sprouts of grass coming up. I use my trowel to dig up the dirt around where the Bermuda grass is coming up to hunt down and pull the white rhizome roots.
*Other weeds have a stem coming from a dispersed web of roots that you have to pull up the center stem to get the roots to come with it. For these, I get my fingers underneath the center stem and pull it out that way.
*Grasses like nutsedge have to be gently pulled if in loose soil or dug out with a trowel to get all their roots out. If any nodules are left, another will sprout from it.
6. There are some grasses and weeds (like crabgrass) that you have to get your hand around all the stems to be able to effectively pull it up. I sometimes also have to use my trowel to dig under the center of the plant to be able to pull it up.
7. There are chemicals like Preen that you can use that suppress seed germination. I don't like using chemicals where I grow our food, Plus, there are many volunteers that come back year after year that I want like cockscomb, zinnias, lettuce, sweet mustard greens to name a few.
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