What kind of weeder are you?

ah jax you are a 'crammer' after my own heart ^_^

I use all of the above except for burning, but "ignore them" is used the most often, so I voted for that. We have weeds year round but the summer and fall are the slower seasons. A weed burner thingy sounded interesting until I read Jeremy's post. Kinda the last thing we need in CA is fire.

Mix of #2, #4, #7 as Resin stated; I do not like poisons and will accept weeds, which actually support wildlife, before using them.

Ignoring works rather well and is much kinder on the back and knees ;)

Mostly hand weed, I also use mulch for keeping everything neat and tidy.

I said other, I get rid of them by hand, tougher ones with a weeding tool, I use Preen in the spring, sometimes you have to use chemicals, ie on poison ivy

I weed by hand and then lay down mulch cause I'm lazy.

I'm not one for chemicals, but sometimes you just need some vegetation killer. (had a nasty patch of poison ivy and virginia creeper)

Fun thread ("hand-to-stalk combat" LOL, Jeff). I weed by hand, with a weeding tool, mulching, and swearing. I try to remember to use gloves but usually get involved in pulling up "just a few weeds," which turns into a bare-handed marathon lasting for some hours. Sometimes I expend water and fertilizer nurturing a handsome large plant, only to discover it is a weed when a more knowledgeable gardener breaks the news to me.
I agree with many previous posters that a weed is only something you don't want in its particular bed.

Hi Jeremy! Actually a lot of members have talked about thickly planting to prevent weeds, including me! I.E. kwanjin's "bunchingthingstogether" and zhinu's "bio-intensive" to name a few.

I love your flame throwing story. Only you, J! Only you! I believe you are the ultimate done everything there is to do gardener.

I'll look into the regulations here now. You may be right, although I've heard that individuals can get burn permits. I may have been "cooking hotdogs" those long laborious 6 days now that you mention it. I have some really AWESOME neighbors, and some really ....anyway, three of the four immediately adjacent to the property are AWESOME. And, they all called us directly when I was doing that the first weekend. Or just stopped on in. Once we said, "We are doing this this way," it ended. But, the helicopters did zoom in on me twice, presumably thanks to neighbor 4 who has an unlicensed retail nursery in his back yard.....ahem, ahem.... Anyway, they came, they left immediately, they had bigger fish to fry. BYW, when I burn the weeds off the bonfire area, I really will make 'Smores. ;-)

I'm a pretty good weeder, they get hand pulled using the digger when needed. The paths get preemergents and sprayed to help out on the compacted areas that are harder to pull.

I voted that I ignore them, which is what I'm doing at this point. I start off every spring diligently controlling the weeds, but somewhere around late summer they start to win and I let them.

I also voted other but needed 'almost all of the above'. If I don't use the dreaded chemicals on the blackberries I won't be able to get out of my house, let alone into my garden. I let them be out in the fields (love blackberry cobbler) but they need to stay in their own space. One of the things I learned when moving to OR was that EVERY THING grows good here, including weeds. We have a short season, so I think they're trying to take over while they can.

I do any and all of the above depending on the circumstances: around the base of shrubs or trees by hand, along the road herbicide in a 16gal. tank!! The only thing faster than weeds growing are weeds seeding! When they get tall enough I don't have to get on my hands and knees, I pull them and throw them in the road. I have seen those suckers continue to grow, bloom and seed even pulled out of their bed.

I like what someone said when they stated "A weed is a plant I haven't killed yet". We have a huge area we try to keep the weeds down in so the seeds won't blow all over...and we are starting to mow it now to hold the cinders and because the herbicides are getting so expensive. Then there is the gas to run the .... it just doesn't end!!!

By hand then use mulch, then weed again but much less.

I voted for mulch, although I do lots of hand weeding. Now, I'm wondering if I use too much mulch, as my iris and dayliliy
leaves are the brownest they've ever been. I'm removing rotting leaves every day, and weeding would not have been
any more time comsuming.

I've read that iris don't like mulch, I left a mulch free ring around mine.

The bearded irises don't like mulch. It can be helpful with beardless such as siberians.

I havent read everything here but vinegar and salt will kill weeds very effectively. I weed by hand and tools at least a foot from each plant I want to keep. Mulch is a big help but there are still some offending weeds that spread by running roots I have to dig out. Then everywhere else and for edging goes a biodegradable weed killer. Cat pee is another natural weed killer but I`m afraid my cat seems to be after my plants and doesn`t want to help with my weeds lol! So new plantings get a protective cage for while. Another idea is weeding every two weeks is a totally better experience than waiting a month. :)

Be careful with salt, though, and keep it to limited areas. Sodium if allowed to build up can cause long term damage to the soil by displacing more valuable cations and affecting the physical structure in the soil. You can amend that eventually with gypsum, but I am leary of using salt for very much.

You are right. I think the straight vinegar is safer and I think maybe "control" is better than "perfect". My gardens have a naturalized look so the weeding doesn`t have to be intensive. The driveway mainly is where I weed the most. I like to create a canopy where the larger plants will give shade and then the lower plants will shade out weeds. It is like a natural environment where the weeds are shaded out and the weedling isn`t too bad if done on a schedule.

Karen

Edited: for spelling and added gardening style for weed control too. :)

This message was edited Aug 13, 2008 2:51 PM

I just Till Mine Under

I so the same as you, Boojum. Hand weeding my beds isn't a big deal except for the dreaded yellow woodsorrel. I was told if I burried it enough it would die. NOT. But the mulch was Kellog's Grow Mulch which has a lot of compost/soil in it so it doesnt' REALLY do much in way of impeding weed penetration. I sure built up the soil and increased my worm population though. lol

I'm on the hunt now for some bark chip mulch - medium brown. Some local guy is selling 15 yards for $15 of pine mulch, but it's "shreaded, not stirred"...I mean chunky enough. It's too light for my "garden decor" shall we say.

azrobin - as you may already know, you can check with local tree removal companies that have the large shredders and ask them to dump a load of wood chips. They will usually gladly do it for free -- it saves them the cost of dumping it at an approved site. The only precaution is that trees are sometimes diseased that are being removed and there is the possibility the disease could spread (though I don't know of any instances where this has happened?). The best load I ever got was palm tree fronds shredded. The tree crew kept asking me if I was sure I wanted it since it was nothing but palm fronds, and I said, "bring it on" to give it a try. The palm frond mulch lasted much longer than most mulch materials in our hot humid climate. Since I saw the palm trees they were trimming downtown, I knew the trees were healthy so I didn't have any disease worries. The other considerations for accepting a load of shredded trees are whether your neighbors are going to freak out about a mountain of mulch in your driveway (I've got my neighbors well trained to expect and tolerate just about anything -- I got by with a huge dump truck backing up and dropping about 25 cu. yds of horse manure with no one reporting me -- after that, its been smooth sailing LOL). Also, it takes a lot of time and effort to spread a huge load of wood chips, so you have to be prepared to invite friends and family to help, hire some workers, or plan on spending lots of time over a week or more to get the mulch scattered.

Jeremy

I plant a lot of pretty "weeds" so they drown the fugly ones out. ^_^

Jeremy, have you ever heard of Ganoderma? Well, anyway, even some local mulch producers could be infected, although it is likely not often or traceable, since they accept, Oh, anything and everything in the way of wood, including CCA waste wood, which is totally illegall.......anyway, that's another issue. Yes, there is a potential for mulched diseased trees to spread disease, and if I ask my DH there may be examples of other diseases. We get a ganoderma conch now and then in the surrounding ground where it killed the old Laurel Oak (notorious for being disease prone), and we pull it up, bag it, and put it in landfill garbage. That spot where the old dead stump remains is relatively unplantable without risk.

Thanks for the info, fauna4. I will readily admit, I'm not much of a tree gardener. I never look up past about knee high where most of my plants hit. LOL It was my impression, though, that conch fungus only grew on already stressed or diseased wood? When I took down some large old oaks in my yard that were threatening to fall on my house during hurricanes, I had the tree removal people leave all the old wood. I didn't want them dragging it through my garden, knowing what damage that could occur. Over time, that old wood grew conchs -- lots of them, but I must admit that I am ignorant enough not to know the conchs could infect the healthy trees?

Anyway--- we are digressing far afield of the survey topic, so maybe we should jump over to the Trees, Shrubs, and Conifers Forum to continue?

Jeremy

Just a quick note. I don't have that forum in my watched groups, but can add tomorrow if you start a thread or whatever. Yes, I understand how you may have the impression that most conchs are saprobic. A very few are parasitic, Ganoderma sessilis, for example. Hits palms and trees. I will have better information tomorrow when I talk to my DH.

I put pre-emergent but honestly I usually do and have done all of the methods of getting rid of weeds.

When I first moved here I had the typical desert acreage full of horrid deeply rooted weeds with seeds of profusion. I just let them do their thing once the summer comes, it is just to hot to do anything but maybe spray total vegetation killer on them if you can, in the evenings. I finally figured out that if I put down pre-emergent around now, that it would keep these present green weeds from seeding in a month or so and germinating for the most part, then in December I do it again with the pre-emergent and then in late January any signs of weeds or crab grass I see, get straight vegetation killer like the strong Round up, put on each tiny plant with a Qtip, so it won't touch any other plant. They die and don't come back. It is like bgrumblin said here. You have to have a big strategy in the desert because weeds are like grass is back east on the side of the road and in vacant land but these are green in the spring and with no water and heat they die and seed all over and the winds are like hurricane force winds so they spread their joy with he and I.

I like your Q-tip method as a low maintenance, non-hot month least amount of product approach. You manage things on a long term basis, which seems very smart for your area. Here, sometimes we drill holes into the trunks of certain invasive species like Brazilian pepper and fill it with roundup. Kind of like there is more than one way to skin a cat, to quote an old saying.

I voted hand pulling, but I to am a crammer . it really does work and the weeds that do show up are sort of out numbered and unnoticeable .

I also wanted to add to those folks who were talking about vinegar I once read that you should boil down vinegar to make it more concentrated I did try it on some weeds growing through the cracks in my driveway, years ago and it made a worked
laura

I usually pull mine out by hand. In summer I just ignore them as they die naturally here (It rains about once every 2 months).

fauna4flora, on Aug. 11 jordankittyjo posted that she had tried burning weeds with a torch, but almost burned down her garden shed, and switched to a hoe!! I think your burning in barrels idea is a good one...

Actually, my most valuable weeding tool is my CD player and an audiobook! Love an excuse to listen to those, and I'm too busy to get to read as much as I like. Have been known to get really picky with the weeds when I'm at a good part in a book...

I have voted 'other'. I do all except using chemicals to spot-treat weeds, I don't put down a pre-emergent weed preventer an I certainly will not ignore them! If I would ignore them my garden would be overgrown in no time. We have warm, but moist climate over here. I remove them as fast as I can, before it can seed around. I don't mind weeding, I find it very relaxing and it helps me while I think sad or important personal issues over...It depends on what weeds and on what spot what I use to remove them.

I like to show you my self made (and invented) weed tool. Since I' ve had a back surgery I cannot bend so much anymore. This thing helps me to pull out the small weeds..works great for me..

This message was edited Aug 14, 2008 2:06 PM

Edited to add and for spelling..

This message was edited Aug 14, 2008 2:19 PM

I use my hands, my digger, my hoola hoe, I will put preen down and then cover with landscape fabric and then mulch!

what a great idea saya !

I always use Preen early in the Spring after first doing a hand weeding. That takes care of most things until about this time of the year when I do some hand weeding and also have an old large army knife that I use to dig out things with longer roots. There are about 6 weeds I'd really like to do away with: nut grass, dandelions, clover, bind weed and a couple other flat ones that show up this time of the year. Those are the ones that nothing really seems to really get rid of. I've just accepted that fact that I'll be fighting them forever.

Susan

I do a lot of hand-weeding and don't wear gloves, which is just torture on my hands, but oh well.

I swear that every year there has been a "new" (different type) of weed in my yard that just grows and grows. Anyone else experience this?

I don't want to scare anyone but I think weeds are really invaders from another planet. They are secretly plotting to take over the world. My proof? The list of invasive plants keeps getting bigger, not smaller in most states/provinces.

I hate to weed! I plant ornamentals close together so that their leaves block out the sun; most of the weeds won't grow without access to sunlight. Ground covers have the same effect. I mulch other areas - - especially the vegetable garden. I yank by hand any weeds that escape those two methods.

If I'm having a bad day, and the weeds bother me but I just can't take the time to weed - - I just take off my glasses and enjoy the overall beauty of the garden. The unfocused hazy view reminds me of a Monet painting. (I'm pretty sure he had his share of weeds!)

This message was edited Aug 14, 2008 11:53 AM