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How to Weed Vegetable Gardens
How to Weed Vegetable Gardens. Maintaining a weed-free vegetable garden promotes healthy growth of vegetables; given a chance, weeds take away much needed moisture and nutrients from the soil. Weeds also reduce the amount of sunlight the vegetables in your garden receive. You can rid your garden of weeds using soil solarization, by creating your...
Maintaining a weed-free vegetable garden promotes healthy growth of vegetables; given a chance, weeds take away much needed moisture and nutrients from the soil. Weeds also reduce the amount of sunlight the vegetables in your garden receive. You can rid your garden of weeds using soil solarization, by creating your own weed killer or by pulling up the weeds by hand. Choose whichever method appeals to you.
Things You'll Need
Plastic Sheet
Vinegar
Spray Bottle
Citrus Oil
Use soil solarization to rid a vegetable garden of weeds and weed seeds before planting. To do so, clear the space you set aside for your vegetable garden of any weeds, plants or grass. Till the soil and rake the surface to remove roots, rocks and other objects at the surface of the soil. Stretch a clear plastic sheet over the soil in your vegetable garden and weigh the edges of the sheet down with large rocks, bricks or cinder blocks. Leave the plastic sheet in place for four to six weeks. During this time, the sun will cook the soil and kill any weeds living in it.
Create a homemade weed killer for your garden with vinegar. Pour vinegar into a spray bottle, mix in a few drops of dish soap and spray the mixture onto the weeds you want to kill. The soap causes the vinegar to be absorbed by weeds with a waxy surface. After the vinegar soaks into the weeds, it draws out the moisture inside the weeds, causing them to die. Be cautious when using vinegar to kill weeds in your vegetable garden, as it is a nonselective weed killer that could kill vegetables. Because of this, you should never spray vinegar in windy conditions. Alternatively, use citrus oil instead of vinegar. The acidity of the oil has the same effects as vinegar; it causes the weeds it is sprayed on to dry out and die.
Dampen the soil around the weeds you want to get rid of in your vegetable garden before pulling them. This loosens the soil around the weeds, making it much easier to pull them up by their roots. Grab each weed by its base and pull. Use a small shovel to assist in digging up the roots of the weeds if necessary.
