This month's topic is on preparation and weed prevention in the pre-spring garden. It is probably more suited for those areas that are not covered in snow and ice. Once the snow melts, however, it's time to start preparing for spring.
Everyone knows weeds are huge garden pests especially if you don't do something early on in the season.
Pick out your garden spot as soon as you are able, and pin or stake down some black plastic or place newspapers down and cover with an inch or two of compost. What this will do is ensure that the grass, or weeds, that usually grows there doesn't grow. In spring, you will remove the plastic then till or spade if you used this method, or you will just till or spade in the newspaper and compost if you chose that one. Instant weed control where you need it.
Of course, some weed seeds from the yard will eventually make it to your garden. The best method is to hand pick and keep hand picking. Using any weed killer can also affect your good plants and contaminate the soil around them, and possibly contaminate your produce as well.
Most yards in California are nothing but the grass you want with a few weeds here and there. Easy to control most of the time. If you live in the south where many plants including some weeds grow year round, then you have a bigger problem.
Bermuda grass is everywhere, but it does lie dormant in winter. It invades everything as soon as it warms up outside. There is nothing that will get rid of it completely. It shoots up through the black plastic that is permanently set around parts of this yard. If you till this grass, the parts that are chopped will start new plants. The best thing to do in this case is to dig out your spot completely. Put up a barrier like a raised bed or some type of metal or plastic barrier around the perimeter of your garden spot. Make sure the barrier is at least 12 inches high. Bermuda attempts to climb over things as it grows. Remove soil at least a foot deep. Buy some new "weedless" soil, compost, composted manure, and soil conditioner and spade it all into a nice new mix. This is costly, but your plants will thank you for it later. Besides, who wants to fight with Bermuda grass on a daily basis. This stuff is mean so put up a wall to it. Unfortunately, I don't own a home, so I haven't really wanted to put that much money into raised beds here. I use container gardening mostly, but in the yard garden, it's a daily battle to keep pulling out the Bermuda. I will be using the newspaper/compost combo this year. But I plan on digging out the soil and using a cheap plastic barrier to hinder most of the grass invasion. These methods work for all types of weed problems, not just bermuda.
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