Try This Weeding Strategy and Weed Less, Not More: Get Rid of Weeds

I hate weeding. In fact, if you were to stop by my home right now you could probably tell I hate weeding for I currently have a lot of weeds. However, I don't expect to have them for long. Several years ago I picked up a gardening book in a bookstore and glanced through it. I don't remember the author or title, but I do remember one specific weeding strategy that the author shared. This is the year I'm going to sit down and put this strategy into place.

It is really a simple strategy, one anyone with a small to medium size yard could use, and best of all, it doesn't require you to spend any extra money on weed killers or expensive mulches. It is a strategy that teaches you how to weed smart, not dumb. The only draw back is that it requires a certain amount of gardening discipline, which I admit I sometimes lack.

The question I asked myself was: why do my weeds keep coming back? Because, silly, when you weeded last, you didn't remove all the weeds, so they propagated themselves! Solution? Put a weeding system in place that systematically reduces and weakens the weeds that are left. If you keep hacking at those weeds, eventually they will be too weak to reproduce and your future weeding with be dramatically reduced.

Most of us who weed regularly mentally divide our yards and gardens into distinct areas; let's say areas A, B, C, D, E, and F. When we start our weeding cycle, we tend to weed area A the first day, then area B a few days later, then C, etc. working diligently through the areas of the yard and garden. In a week or two, we've weeded the whole yard and the gardens, from areas A to F, but when we look back at areas A and B, we discovered to our discouragement and frustration that they are half-filled with weeds already, while C and D don't look much better and to keep up the yard the whole weeding cycle starts all over again. If you are like me, usually by mid-spring or early summer you've given up weeding all together and just pretend not to see them as you walk by. (And pretend not to notice the pointed looks and broad hints from your neighbors that you are being a bad neighbor by not maintaining your yard.)

The weeding strategy this author suggested was revolutionary, and really quite simple. Instead of weeding area A one day, then area B the next, then area C, etc. he recommended that you weed area A first, then the next day you weed, weed area A again! then move on to area B. Then the third time you weed, weed area A again, then area B, THEN move on to area C! By hammering away at area A, for example, you will be making sure to remove any weeds as soon as they come up, weakening the weeds and preventing them from reseeding. If you continue to revisit previously weeded areas first, before moving on to new areas, you will be maintaining those areas, rather than constantly scrambling to keep up with new weed growth when you finally get back to them a couple weeks later. You will find that you are spending far less time weeding, in the long run, because it takes much, much less time to maintain an already weeded area, then to start weeding cold in an overgrown area.

I don't know if the gardening book mentioned this, but I would recommend when you start your weeding system to assign your yard areas based on what are the most public parts of your yard. For example, what parts are most seen by your neighbors or from the street? Make these your A and B areas. That way, as you are working through the rest of your yards and gardens your neighbors at least can enjoy the fruit of your hard weeding labors by seeing these weed free areas on a regular basis.

Blessings!