Lesson 4: A Labor Of Love
Maintaining your garden is truly a labor of love. This lesson will guide you through the steps to help minimize chores, store and maintain your tools and equipment, and generally help gardening become a much more enjoyable pastime.
Pre-Emergents: A Weed's Worst Nightmare
Most of us hate weeding. It’s a back breaking, daunting chore that at times seems to go on forever. However, there is a class of controls, called pre-emergents, that can greatly reduce time spent weeding. Pre-emergents work on specific weed seeds before they germinate. This effectively stops weeds from appearing in your lawn or garden.
To be effective, these products need to be applied in the late Fall and again in the Spring. The timing depends on the specific weeds being targeted. These products are effective against annual weeds like crabgrass. To find out which weeds are common to your particular area, it is best to consult with your local garden center or Master Gardener before using the product.
If your lawn is 40% or more weed, you will be better off redoing the entire lawn. A lawn with this much weedy plant growth will require too many herbicides to get it back into shape. Removing the lawn, applying your pre-emergent, waiting for at least 3 weeks, then reseeding or laying down turf will allow you to have something you can maintain much more easily.
Corn gluten meal is an organic pre-emergent that has the additional benefit of restoring nitrogen to the soil. It can be applied when temperatures are consistently between 50 and 55 degrees. This product is most effective against crabgrass. There are some very good products out there, but they do tend to be pricey. Only you can decide whether the savings in time and labor are worth it to you.
In garden areas, thoroughly soaking the soil and hand pulling the weeds, roots and all is still the best method of control. Getting out there in the early Spring, before the heat sets in, and doing a small area every day, will help make your planting season much more enjoyable.
