It’s better to avoid weeds in the first place rather than wasting time, which could be spent on other gardening tasks, on weeding them out.
Of course, you can’t have a weedless garden but there are a number of things that you can do to limit their presence. So, here are 4 tips to reduce weeds in your garden:
#1: Inspect new plants
Check new plants for weed seeds before you plant them. The reason for this is because the longer these plants stay in nursery, the more likely it is for weed seeds to settle in and germinate.
#2: Minimize cultivation
The reason why you should minimize cultivation is because with the presence of weed seeds in the soil, cultivation will expose them to sunlight. The more you cultivate, the more chances there are for weeds to grow. A preferable option would be to use mulch and let the earthworms do the cultivating for you.
#3: Minimize tilling
Even though tilling has been recommended by experts, the thing with doing this is that it breaks up the soil while exposing weed seeds to sunlight. This, much like shallow cultivation, gives them the chance to grow thus giving you more work that you can do without.
#4: Mulch the soil
Mulching the soil is the best way to prevent weeds from growing in your garden. Not only does adding mulch cool the soil and retain moisture but it will also cover up weed seeds. A downside to this is that there are young plants that you might want to grow that might be covered up in the process, and which is why it is a good idea to mulch only in late spring.