Soil Nursery Bed

It is the same old story. I cannot emphasize it enough. Without chemicals a property owner has to be more aware of ways to deal with weeds. Weeds are still weeds; there is a reason they have been classified as such, they take away from the joy of your property. They increase your work load or else they take over you yard. Eventually they will have to be dealt with.

Weeds are likely in every potted plant you buy, every bag of soil or compost that you apply and in the wind that passes by.

Today's blog is about introducing practices to help alleviate future problems with weeds and prevent them from destroying your garden or lawn.

The main rule to remember is simple. Introduce soil as far away from established root systems as possible. The tighter and more established the roots the harder it will be to remove unwanted plants.
Soil added to ground cover or to the base of shrubs will mean any unwanted growth will have to be pulled from amongst the existing roots. This is quite a difficult task.
You want to avoid adding soil to your lawn, base of shrubs or perennial gardens. The best place to introduce more soil is an annual bed or in potted plants. The best advise to to introduce an annual bed to your home that is treated as a "soil nursery"

Create an annual bed or introduce a system of potted plants. Choose which soil and additives you would like to test out or use and add it to these pots or bed. You will have a whole year to manage and pull weeds from these areas. The benefits to this system is that the weeds are noticed and easily pulled out. Your annual bed is always loaded with the best soil so that your plants will always look phenomenal.
In the fall you just empty your "soil nurseries" into your established gardens so they can get the benefits of the great soil without the weeds. In the spring you get to choose your soil and additives again and try something new or stick to what worked.

Another note is that plants from neighbors and friends are never wise to introduce into established beds. These gifts destroy more gardens than the soil. If you do not want to, or cannot refuse the gifted plant just make sure you plant it in your annual garden for the first year. This will give you a chance to see if they are invasive or if they are infested with weeds.

Gardening takes time and patience. If you are stumped as to what to do with your gardens, we offer consultations.