Chester County Weed Control Tips

Weed control in Chester County is a lot like weed control everywhere else: it’s a battle.

Sometimes it isn’t even enough to pull those weeds once, because roots can re-grow the plants, and nature’s breezes can often deposit the seeds necessary to trigger their growth.

That means pulling weeds needs to be an ongoing process that requires vigilance on your part, so those unwanted plants don’t have a chance to dominate the flowers, vegetables, and other desirable plants you have growing. Here are a few tips that might give you the upper hand in the ongoing battle against weeds.

Remove weeds completely

You might think that you’re doing a decent job of weed control in Chester County when you pass by your garden each day, and yank out those couple new weeds which have recently appeared. Chances are though, that all you’ve really done is encouraged a deeper growth and more stubborn resistance from those weeds. Unless you can completely remove all vestiges of each individual weed, whatever part is left in the ground, e.g. roots or seeds, will only dig in deeper to defend itself against future removal.

It’s far better for you to commit some legitimate time to your weed-pulling efforts, and do a thorough job so that the offending plants don’t come back. Before you even begin, arm yourself with all the tools you’ll need to do a decent job, including a claw, a hoe, a shovel, a bucket, and maybe even a wheelbarrow.

For those weeds which are relatively shallow, you might need only a claw to completely dig out all the roots and discard them in your bucket. For those which are deeper-growing plants, you’re probably better off to use the hoe or the shovel to get as deep as you need to go, so the weeds are completely uprooted. This is the only sure way to completely remove weeds, and ensure that they don’t have the chance to re-grow.

Catch weeds early

The best time to get the most bang for your buck with weeding is during the first couple years of establishing your new garden or landscape area. All weeds go through cycles during which they disperse seeds to proliferate, and if your weeding efforts coincide with a seeding cycle, you may end up achieving the opposite of what you had hoped, be assisting with that proliferation.

You could unknowingly catch them at the worst possible time during a seeding cycle, and help to spread seeds which germinate at various times. If this happens, you could easily have one generation after another of weeds, because of these staggered germination times. That makes it very important to catch weeds early before they reach their seeding cycles.

Use plastic sheets to block resources

If you have enough room in your garden to lay down plastic garden sheets around your flowers or other desired vegetation, this can be a very effective way of suppressing weeds. Because the plastic acts to block both water and sunlight from the ground underneath, it denies those critical nutrients to any weeds which might otherwise have a chance to grow. In fact, if you already have weeds in your garden, laying down plastic sheets over the top of them will effectively kill them.

Use specific landscaping methods

This approach to weed control in Chester County does not involve trying to eradicate the weeds from your garden or landscape area, but instead attempts to limit their coverage. If you have lots of room around your home, you can try the ‘open landscaping’ method, which calls for creating a flower bed with mulch between the flowers that will suppress weeds from popping up.

If you have a wide-open area like a lawn, you’ll probably get weeds from time to time, but they’ll be very easy to deal with, because they’re so visible. In this scenario, you can apply a weed killer which would be very effective, without damaging any of the surrounding lawn grass.

The ‘natural landscaping’ method incorporates a design which is like the naturally lush vegetation you would find in any area where nature proceeds unchecked, and everything can grow freely. In your home garden, this approach translates to planting a great many desirable flowers or other plants close together, so that there is virtually no room for weeds to make their appearance.

Most likely, you’ll still have at least a few weeds make their way into your garden, and they might be difficult to spot among all the other desirable vegetation, but you can always count on them being far fewer in number, because of the limited space and access to sunlight.

If you need help with your battle against the weeds encroaching on your landscaping and hardscaping, turn to Woodward Landscape Supply.  We can supply you with mulch and landscaping fabric to help you make your property a more weed-free place.