How does one keep weeds from growing in a vegetable garden!!?

Question

I spend hours hand weeding in my garden and my back hurts! Is there something out ther that works on all veges?? I've done mulching, tilling, and hoeing but the weeds keep coming. I've even tried preen but half of the veges didn't come up. Is there some kind of a miracle weed control out there that I've missed or do I need to just keep taking the Advil for my back? Thanks

Answer 1

You cannot stop weeds growing, you can only keep them under control.

If there is nutrient for your veggies/flowers, then there's nutrient for other plants (weeds).

Mulching helps control them by suppressing daylight, but this will also suppress the vegetables !

The only thing to do is make sure you remove the roots of weeds, that way they wont grow again - but there always more seeds in, and being sowed into, your patch, so it's a never ending task.

One treatment is to spray fresh weed growth with Roundup, that kills the roots - but beware of spray getting onto your other plants as it will kill them too.

Sorry friend, this is the world of gardening - get on your hands and knees - and WEED !

Answer 2

Looks like you got some good answers to your question but I just heard on the weather channel that you can pour boiling water on weeds and this helps kill the weed also if you put salt in that water this will kill some weeds.
This is not a perfect world and if you want a garden then you will have weeds. I don't like using chemicals in the soil so when I heard of boiling water this was the ticket for me when I couldn't pull them due to the aches & pains of gardening

Answer 3

It is not easy! You can put down a layer of newspaper every growing season or you can buy rolls of material for that purpose. However if you have plants that reseed themselves, they wont. To be a true gardner I have found you just have to pull those weeds! Go out and buy you a "Garden Claw". The best garden tool Ive ver used.

Also, I like to till or loosed up the soil aroun my plants frequently and you cant do that if you have a liner or newspapers covering your ground.

Answer 4

When you pull the weeds, are you pulling the whole root out of the ground or just breaking off the weed and leaving the root? Try to get as much root as possible. Also...a friend of ours always used round-up in the fall after the veggies were done, then the next spring and summer he didn't have the weed problem. Mulch is another idea. You can use shredded paper or anything as mulch around the plants. Even whole newspapers! Just get them real wet after you lay it down so they won't blow in the wind! Then you can just till between the rows.

Answer 5

A friend of mine works for an all natural landscaping company. They use a long-neck propane torch and burn them. That's basically what those toxic weed killers do but this way leaves nothing behind but burnt-up weeds instead of poisons with 50 yr. half life. He said his boss says they were originally designed for ice removal. I used it last year on the grass in between the pavers on my walkway and only had to do it once all summer. I don't see why it wouldn't work in the garden.

Answer 6

I keep a thihck layer of pinestraw in my garden after my plants come up, it helps a lot, but you're going to end up weeding no matter what you try. I don't use any kind of poison because I'm on a well and don't want stuff in the ground water.

Answer 7

Have you tried laying several layers of news paper down and then a thick layer of straw to stop weeds . This is also good for the plants because it holds the moisture in the ground . Weeds will not grow in the dark so if you stop the light at the base of the plants the weeds will not grow

Answer 8

Whatever it's worth... Bevy's response about laying down plastic (preferably a dark-colored plastic to prevent sunlight from shining through) is good advice. I'd also recommend laying down a soaker hose alongside your vegetable plants prior to putting down the plastic. The soaker hose (I lay soaker hose on both sides of the plants) should supply enough water to the vegetable plants and also will prevent many of the weeds from germinating that are outside of the plastic.

Hope this helps. Good Luck!

Answer 9

Use ready to use roundup in a squirt bottle and use a piece of cardboard to protect your veggies from the roundup. Round up is best in the garden because it will kill the weed root and all. Wait.....I think that's what they say on their commercial. Well it must be true!

Good luck!

Answer 10

Preen is good. You can spread it before planting, but only for certain vegetables: tomatoes, peppers, broccoli and cucurbits after they have four true leaves, and some others. Read the label. Do not use for non listed items. I tried it on corn and onion sets; they didn't start growing for months.