I try to use more specific terms than “weeding” when discussing managing plants in the garden. We don’t want to leave the soil bare or waste our time, so we want to be strategic with what we pull and what we leave. “Weeding” can be counter-productive while “removing invasive species”, “clearing for planting”, and “converting cover crops to mulch” are much better terms.
First, identify the plants in your garden before you start pulling them out willy-nilly. Know which grasses have rhizomes and which don’t. Understand that dandelions are a food crop and valuable bio-accumulator. Lambs quarters, shepherds purse, and plantain are also edible and are fine as cover crops. Clover is one of the best things you can have growing in your garden because it is nitrogen fixing and a great cover crop. These can get in the way, but they’re not that difficult to remove.
There will likely only be three or four plants in your garden that are actual problems and the rest are just fine as long as they’re not overtaking your plants. Bermuda grass is a big problem because it creates a solid mat of rhizomes and is nearly impossible to remove once it’s in an area. Bindweed is a vine that spreads quickly and wraps around plants, choking them. Mint and related plants can take over before you know it. I’ve dealt with four o’clock flowers, which seed prolifically and have a deep taproot that is really difficult to remove. I’ve also fought with cattails, which have rhizomes like bermuda grass but deeper. Know what your problem plants are and focus on those. When you see they are flowering, take one day and pull all of them out, leave everything else.
Only clear all of the plants from an area if you are going to replace them with something else immediately. Never leave soil bare. When soil dries out the microorganisms in it die, the nitrogen evaporates and that soil turns into infertile dirt. If your plants are being overtaken, pull the aggressive plants up, turn them upside down, and put them right back down where they came from to serve as mulch. The only exception to this rule is plants with rhizomes like bermuda grass and cattails because those will grow back from the rhizomes even if they’re just laying on the surface. Put the rhizomes and any seed heads in a far away long-term compost pile.
Links to More Information
18 Beneficial Weeds in a Garden and Their Uses https://balconygardenweb.com/beneficial-weeds-in-a-garden-and-their-uses/
12 Ways to Get Rid of Weeds Without Using Roundup https://www.ecowatch.com/12-ways-to-get-rid-of-weeds-without-using-roundup-1891166153.html
