What methods can be used to make a garden bed from scratch without weeds, ideas and expert advice
Fighting unwanted vegetation takes a lot of time and effort, so everyone is interested in the question: how to make a garden bed from scratch without weeds? To prevent the growth of weeds, you need to carry out a number of preparatory work. The earth is dug up, removing the roots of weeds from it, leveled, covered with mulching film. Grown weeds in the open field are mowed, pulled out or sprayed with chemicals.
The main types of weeds growing in vegetable gardens
Without exception, all gardeners know that in order to get a good harvest, the land on which crops grow must be fertilized and watered. True, taking care of the fertility of the soil leads to the fact that instead of sown plants, weeds grow in the garden.
Weed grasses are distinguished by faster development, resistance to any weather conditions, and aggressive spreading. They take water and nutrients from the main crops. In the struggle for existence in the garden, cultivated plants often lose.
Weed vegetation and control measures:
- ambrosia (mulching, weeding, pesticide treatment Roundup, Tornado);
- thistle (weeding, spraying with herbicides Tornado, Lapis lazuli);
- bindweed (digging the soil, repeated cutting, treatment with herbicide preparations Chistoryad, Ground);
- highlander (weeding, spraying with pesticides Gezagard, Betanal);
- wood lice (soil mulching, weeding, the use of chemicals Pyramine, Diphenamide);
- field fire (mulching, weeding, herbicides Calcium Cyanamide, Diphenamide);
- nettle (weeding, digging the soil, mulching the beds, spraying with pesticides Glyphos, Tornado);
- spurge (weeding, treatment with herbicidal agents Esteron, Chistalan);
- dandelion (mulching, weeding, irrigation with Agrokson, Metafen pesticides);
- plantain (weeding, herbicide treatment Lontrel, Ballet);
- wheatgrass (digging soil, weeding, mulching);
- thistle (digging soil, weeding).
Weed vegetation is fought as it appears. As a preventive measure, the land in the garden is dug up in the fall. When a layer of earth is turned over, weed roots appear on the surface, which are simply selected. There are other measures to control unwanted vegetation.
How to organize a weed-free bed
Deal with unwanted vegetation systematically and consistently. If you leave it unattended for a while, then soon the whole garden will be populated with weeds. Simple ideas and methods of weed control will help gardeners win this difficult struggle.
Herbicide treatment
You can deal with weeds without weeding. Herbicides have been used in large farms for many decades, and only a few have used them in private gardens. These chemicals allow you to easily quickly deal with any weed vegetation.
Herbicides (Lontrel, Roundup, Lazurite) have selective activity, that is, they act only on weeds, and do not cause any harm to crop plants.
You can buy the herbicide at any seed or fertilizer department. Before use, the preparations are diluted with water in the dosage indicated in the instructions. Usually, the field is treated with a herbicide solution in early spring, before or after sowing. Young weeds are sprayed with herbicides.
Chemicals burn or wilt weeds, and after a few weeks completely disintegrate in the soil.
Typically, the field is sprayed with herbicide only once per season.
Mechanical struggle for cleanliness
In order to get rid of weeds, you need to fight with it. The easiest way to cut the weeds is to root them. True, after some time they will grow again. If new shoots appear, they are removed again. In the end, the plant will run out of strength, it will not be able to reproduce the aboveground part and will die.
Mowing is used to combat perennials. Annuals can be defeated by weeding. The weeds, along with the roots, are pulled out of the ground. For weeding, use a hoe, Fokin's flat cutter.
Mulching
Without exception, all plants need sunlight for life and normal development. If the bed is covered with black plastic wrap or agrofibre, then all vital processes will stop in the dark. Mulching can destroy not only sprouts, but also the roots of weeds, which cannot live without food.
The soil covered with film will have to be artificially irrigated and fertilized. As mulch, you can use bark, sawdust, peat, hay, straw.
Fire treatment
You can deal with weeds with fire. In dry, calm weather, you need to take a blowtorch and walk with it around the garden. You only need to set fire to weeds. It is advisable to carry out this procedure in early spring - before planting vegetables, or in late autumn - after harvesting. Weeds are destroyed with glancing flames. The fire should touch the plants.
The earth itself cannot be set on fire, otherwise a fire may occur.
Sowing siderates
This is a completely harmless biological way to combat weeds. As soon as a place is made available in the garden so that it does not overgrow with weeds, siderates are sown. These are plants that are sown for a short time, without waiting for the harvest, they are mowed and embedded in the ground so that they decompose there, and later serve as a breeding ground for new crops.
Phacelia, lupine, sweet clover, oil radish, white mustard, peas, oats, clover, rape can be used as green manure.
Folk ways and means
Weeds can be fought with folk methods. The beds are treated with substances that can be found in the kitchen cabinet. In small quantities, these preparations will not cause any harm to the soil.
Salt
You can kill weeds in the field with table salt. Stumps, garden paths, areas with paving slabs are sprinkled with dry substance. Cover the sprinkled area with plastic wrap on top so that the salt does not soak the sediments. True, this method is not suitable for spraying a garden.
To combat weeds in the garden, you need to prepare a solution. Usually, one package of salt is taken per bucket of water. You can add 0.5 liters of vinegar and a glass of dishwashing liquid to the liquid.Weeds are sprayed with such a mixture, they die in 1-3 days.
Soda
Plain soda will help get rid of weeds. A solution is prepared for spraying. On a bucket of water, take half a packet of soda and a little liquid soap for adhesion.
It is advisable to use the tool in the early stages of weed growth.
Alcohol solution
The method of treating the beds with alcohol came to us from the USA. There, this method of weed control was used in the 30s of the last century during Prohibition.
According to this method, the beds are watered with an alcohol solution in early spring. They take a bottle of vodka on a bucket of water. After such watering, the weeds sprout together, they are immediately weeded. Then they begin planting work. Thanks to the one-time treatment of the soil with alcohol for the whole season, you can forget about such a problem as weeds.
Vinegar
To get rid of unwanted vegetation, you can use 9 percent table vinegar. True, they can only be watered on garden paths. To spray weeds growing in the garden, you need to prepare a vinegar solution.
Take vinegar and water in a ratio of 1: 1, 1: 2 or 1: 3. The more contaminated the field, the higher the concentration of the mixture. With an abundance of weeds, the solution is prepared from equal proportions of vinegar and water. Weeds are irrigated with a vinegar mixture in dry and calm weather. You can add a little liquid soap or shampoos to the liquid for better adhesion.
Boiling water
The garden bed in early spring can be watered with boiling water. Hot water will burn any weed seeds that are on the surface of the soil. Boiling water can be poured over weeds that have grown near the garden path. The addition of salt will help enhance the effect of hot water.
Expert advice
On the site with weeds, they fight using mulch (gravel, film) or planting ground cover plants (nasturtium, mint, periwinkle, saxifrage). In the garden, weed control is carried out mainly by weeding or mowing. The use of mulch involves the construction of an artificial irrigation system.
Spraying with herbicidal agents will help to facilitate the work of gardeners. Herbicide treatment is carried out once, at the very beginning of weed growth (in spring).
