Weeds are on your side. They’ve come to heal the soil from its historical treatment. They do this in many ways – drawing minerals that are missing, soaking up toxins, moderating excessive minerals, adding organic matter, improving soil structure … they are nutrient dense, mineral rich powerhouses – and the fastest way to awesome soil, is to tap into, and use them.
Rather than weeding/ spraying them out, you and your soil, are better served when you support them to fulfil the role they came to play. Its about identifying the moments where you can allow weeds grace, and the moments to manage them.
The great news is, gardening with weeds isn’t hard, infact your gardening life is about to become ridiculously easy. Read on gardener!
Smart tactics
Because weeds have come to do a specific job for your soil, its smart to let them fulfill it. Ripping them out or worse, spraying, keeps the same weeds in play – of course they stay, their jobs not yet done! We bemoan the weeds, and yet its us perpetuating this silly cycle of – spray or pull, the same weeds return; spray or pull, the same weeds return…. I imagine all the weeds out there in the fields – sighing in despair.
Lets be smart about it, and easy!
- Improve your soils. As the soil changes, so too the weeds, moving from hard to manage buttercup, dock, thistle for example to gentler, annual weeds like chickweed, dead nettle or veronica. It helps to remember that the current weeds are but a phase. As your soil evolves, so too your weeds.
- Never leave your soil bare – an invitation for weeds if ever there was one. Weeds colonise bare soil speedily – as part of natures overall healthy soil game plan. Beat them to it and either mulch generously, plant densely or leave the weeds there.
Here are my 5 favourite, non back breaking ways to work with weeds.
1. Smother
Nothing clears the ground of stubborn weeds like a sheet of plastic. Especially through the hotter months. Hold it in place with planks – if its secure, you can forget about it for a while. No digging, no spraying, no hard yakka – just time and a bit of cunning.
Weeding in this way is great for soil – all those weeds melt back in, adding organic matter, feeding up a whole new guild of life and imbuing the soil with missing minerals (or whatever job the weeds came to do in the first place.) And even though its plastic – the soil always seems happy, the worms aren’t put off at any rate.
When no greenery remains, peel off the plastic and proceed with mulching and planting. The key thing here is to plant the space up right away.
2. Mulch
Mulch blocks light to weeds and at the same time builds soil – such an energy efficient, delightful way to ‘weed’!
- Dollop a handful of mulch on top of young weeds. This is easy if you are regularly collecting organic matter, and have plenty to hand.
- To ‘weed’ an established vegetable bed, lay wet newspaper over top of weeds, then cover with mulch. Either wait for the weeds to melt back into the soil or if needing to plant right away, make pockets into the mulch without breaking through the newspaper, fill with compost and plant away.
- To create a new bed, slash back any persistent weeds first, then lay wet cardboard on top before piling on the mulch. Make pockets in the mulch and plant. If you are on a slope, make temporary but robust terraces with hunks of driftwood or some such, to retain the mulch until the plants fill the space.
The bonus of going on top like this, is that you avoid releasing more weed seeds, or chopping into and dispersing roots – which many vigorous weeds thrive on.
Weeds that pop through mulch (and they will!) are easily removed in the soft layers of organic matter. Over time as you continue to pile mulch on, soil will improve no end and the weeds will lessen and change.
3. Interplant + outcompete
Many weedy areas can be transformed with subterfuge. (‘Many’, I hope you understand, is a caveat.) The trick to outcompeting vigorous weeds, is to use equally vigorous plants. Achieve this by choosing plants that suit your soil type + climate really well, because these are the plants that will grow like mad. Choose a combination of taller plants/ shrubs/ trees to tower over, alongside covering the ground with dense plantings.
- Evergreen perennials are the most competitive plants because they cover the soil year round. Winter dormant perennials are next on the list and annuals are last, apart from the few enthusiastic self seeding annuals that hold ground as well as any perennial eg: nasturtium, fennel and borage for instance.
- Notice the plants that perform the best at your place – the ones that are down right rambunctious and that self seed easily amongst grass or weeds – these are the plants to use.
- Work up a groovy guild of plants that suit your conditions. Pick a simple mix – a tap root, a nitrogen fixer, a few groundcovers, dynamic accumulators and herbs. Use the plant lists in this article to kick you off and there’s more awesome ideas here.
- Plant in communities, establishing one or two densely planted strongholds rather than lots of little separate, vulnerable marooned islands.
Expand these communities outward little by little, adding new plants each season.
Let the plants that don’t work go, and lean on the plants that thrive, and one day – the weeds will no longer dominate – not necessarily gone, but interspersed among plants you love.
You aren’t ever going to get rid of weeds, they’re part of nature. A brillinat, clever part of nature. With a relaxed mindset, lots of mulching, keen observation of what works and what doesn’t + alot of patience – it comes together.
4. Manage the seedheads
One years seeding = seven years weeding! Sometimes this is a bonus – it plays right into our hopes and aspirations – let all the plants you adore, self seed and colonise the gardens! Easy peasy!
Sometimes, though, in the case of plants you dont want – it does not. Slash off the immature seedheads of plants you dont want repeating, and let them drop on the soil for an improving mulch. There’s no chance of them self seeding if you get them before the seeds are ripe.
Use this same chop and drop technique to knock back weeds around crops or newly planted perennial areas. The aim is to bring a bit more breathing space to preferred plants while supporting the weeds to play out their natural cycle.
Give and take is the name of the game. Its interesting watching it all play out and seeing how little tweaks make all the difference, and that on the whole – less is more.
5. Let the weeds be
My neighbour Steve is in the process of letting his farm re wild. The first year offered up swathes of ragwort, striking fear into the heart of neighbouring farmers. Steve was soon telling me about a little caterpillar that had arrived and started gobbling up the flowers, after which the caterpillars began eating each other! Observation teaches you all you need to know. Without the observation, chemicals and mass panic ensues – when there is absolutely no need for either.
In the space of just three years, the ragwort is greatly reduced, and the downward trend continues. No sprays. No mowing. No worries. Just observation and letting it be.
Many weeds work in this way – naturally evolving on with the help of animal or insect or simply because their job is done. Where can you let weeds be?
- under trees
- around newly planted trees + shelterbelt plantings.
- in areas that you wont be able to plant for a few years – how about begin, by letting the weeds and groundcovers do their thing? Let nature take care of your soil. What an education this is!
- driveways and parking lots are another good place to play with leaving be. You can always step in and weed eat or mow if it gets too much for you.
Learn Your Weeds
Weeds come in all shapes and sizes – from vining and strangling convulvulus to rhizomateous california thistle to super competitive kikuyu. Learn your weeds by observing them.
Watch for the timing of their flowering and when they arise from dormancy or are they annual? or evergreen perennial?
Figure out the soil and environment they prefer and how they spread?
With this info under your belt you are well on your way to a successful collaboration.
Funny thing is, that often, as you observe and ponder and more importantly do nothing, the natural evolution plays out and nature sorts it. Just like in Steve’s case.
Use the philosophy described here as a baseline and tweak it to suit. If trickier weeds are your lot, then check out the article below – it speaks to a few of the harder weeds.