Weeds can be an annoying sight for any keen gardener and homeowner. As Summer is getting nearer weeds can grow incessantly and haphazardly around the garden. Which means they steal and bully other garden plants by robbing them of their valuable sunlight and nutrients. 

To help you win the fight against weeds, we have devised a battle plan to help you get your garden back!


The old fashioned way

There is a high chance that the weeds will grow close to your most prized plants which could be herbs or veggies. In this case, it may be best to go the old fashion route of pulling out the weed since using herbicides may also affect the surrounding plants. 

If you are planning to have a weeding session the best time to do it is after watering or after it has rained. The soil will be moist which makes it easier to pull up the weeds and the roots. 

Make sure to dispose of the weeds in a plastic bag (or for a big job hire a waste bag) and not leave them lying around. The weeds can spread their seeds nullifying your hard work. Adding weeds to compost is also an option but the weeds will need to be dried out or boiled before adding especially the weeds.


Home remedy

A good home remedy to apply for on-the-spot weed treatment is to use a mixture of vinegar and salt. Use 1 part salt and 3 parts of vinegar. Dissolve the salt in the vinegar and pour into a bottle that you can spray the weeds with. This will help to reduce the need for herbicide which is toxic to children and pets. 

When spraying the home remedy or herbicide care must be taken to not spray on the surrounding plants or vegetation. Furthermore, the amount of the mixture (home remedy or herbicide) must be controlled. Spraying too much will cause the mixture to seep into the soil and become infertile. This can have devastating effects on your garden. 


Add mulch

Weeds will germinate best in warm soil and plenty of sunshine. Mulch can prevent this since it prevents the seeds reaching the top layer of soil. Furthermore, mulch will also prevent any seeds already in the top layer of soil getting sun. 

The best type of mulch to choose would be bark since this type of mulch can sometimes contain carabids and beetles. These insects feed off the weed seeds which is a great combination to use with bark mulch. 

Furthermore, since bark is a natural product, it will break down and amends the soil over time.


Keeping your garden weed free forever

The methods above will not prevent weeds from growing but they will enervate them. The most reliable method is to drain their energy supplies which will make it harder for the weeds to grow back. Completely killing weeds cannot be done in a single season but can be done over two or more seasons. By taking proactive steps to slowly phase them out will help in keeping your garden weed free in the seasons to come. 

If you need a bag to dispose of all of the weeds why not hire a waste bag from just £9?