Fight weeds without chemicals

What weeds are in your lawn depends entirely on how you look at it. For example, a dandelion can be seen by some as a beautiful splash of color or a raw material for wine, while others perceive it as an unwelcome guest. Flowers that in some cases give splendor can in other cases steal nutrition and space from the herbs we want to flourish in a certain place.

Regardless of how you define what grows in your garden, however, it may be necessary to occasionally clear both weeds and lawn. Here we will therefore give tips on how you can go about it without having to poison your garden with chemicals.

Preventive weed control

To create a garden where you think the right plant is in the right place, you need to discipline nature. Plants have an enormous survival instinct so they will spread where the circumstances are most favorable. Therefore, you need to convince the weeds that your garden is not the right place while creating good conditions for what you want to grow.

Garden design

You can achieve a way to reduce the amount of weeds by adapting what you plant to the local growing conditions. This means that you start from how nature designs your garden when it is allowed to ravage freely. In places where common weeds such as nettles or cherry blossoms grow, the soil is rich in nitrogen. There you suitably plant plants with large green leaves that require a lot of nitrogen, for example parasol leaves.

Then it competes with the nettles and the cherry bowl. Similarly, you can plant rhododendrons on a heather heath because they both prefer acidic soil. Because the rhododendron is larger, it will not make room for the heather. Yellow weeds such as tussilago thrive in clay soils with a high PH value. If you do not like the first flower of spring, you can instead plant a fern where tussilagon grows.

Prosperous garden

Plants that are well and strong will not make room for weeds. A dense, strong lawn, for example, gives neither moss nor weeds the opportunity to spread. In the same way, weeds are not as big a problem when the plants in the garden land have grown large and resistant.

Therefore, it is also important that you treat your soil well and not destroy it by adding chemical herbicides. A healthy soil will provide more resistant plants and thus less space for weeds.

Prevent spread

Another way to prevent plants you do not want from invading your garden is to stop them even before they take root. Plants usually spread via seeds or roots. Seeds come from above and root grass reproduces from below. Cover the soil with some form of mulch.

It prevents both seeds from taking root and at the same time provides a more moist soil. To prevent root spreaders, dig down barriers. Then the root grass chooses to send its offshoots somewhere else. Keep in mind that some weeds like dandelion spread with both seeds and roots.

Sometimes you have to prevent the spread manually by regularly cutting off the long tears that, for example, blackberries, strawberries and honeysuckle send out above ground. This measure also benefits the plant because these tears take energy from the mother plant.

Weeding

Even if you use different methods to prevent the amount of weeds in your garden, you will also need to clear weeds during the growing season. If you leave the dandelions, for example, you will get the whole lawn filled with yellow weeds in the coming years.

So just as you regularly need to water, pick snails and prune shrubs, it is also necessary to scratch weeds for the garden to remain in the condition you want it to be. It is enough that you travel away for a couple of weeks in the summer for weeds, drought and snails to take over. If you want help in that fight while you are away, we offer Vacation service.

Remove dandelions manually

To remove the dandelion, it is important that you not only remove the plant but also include the entire root. You use a shovel or dandelion bar to succeed. Do as follows:

1. Push down the spade or dandelion bar next to the flower root.
2. When you have come down about a decimeter, angle the tip of the spade or pliers towards the dandelion.
3. When you hear or feel a twitch, the root has gone off.

Do not throw dandelions on the compost, as you will only move the problem. Instead, take care of the dandelion's edible parts. Leach out the root and cook it for a quarter. It contains a lot of carbohydrates. Eat the vitamin C-rich leaves in a salad and make wine from the flowers.

Vinegar against weeds

Another way to get rid of weeds is to soak them in vinegar. Weed vinegar suffocates the plants. Especially dandelion and plantain leaves can kill you this way. The problem is that if you regularly control weeds with vinegar in this way, the pH value in the soil will drop.

This makes the soil acidic, which can instead benefit, for example, the growth of moss in the lawn. Therefore, it is more appropriate to use weed vinegar on the terrace or in the hallway, where it does not matter if the soil becomes acidic.

Salt against weeds

After the Romans destroyed Carthage, they plowed salt into the fields so that nothing could ever grow there again. Namely, there are few plants that thrive in a saline soil. So if, for example, you want to prevent weeds from growing between tiles on the patio or garden path, a base of salt is a way to prevent it. Then you do not have to clear weeds between tiles because nothing will be able to grow in the saline soil.

Gas burner weed

If you do not want to use salt against the weeds so that other plants are not affected, you can instead remove the unwanted plants with fire. With gas burner weeds disappear easily. You should not burn the grass but instead use a technique called flaming. This means that you only touch the plant so that the cells heat up and thus burst. It works best on annuals. When performing flaming, it is important that it occurs when the ground is not too dry. This way you avoid the risk of the fire spreading.

Change setting

The most effective way to get rid of weeds from your garden is to change the setting. Let nature have its way and learn to appreciate your garden as it is. Several of the more common weeds are also excellent food. Cherry bowl has a mild taste and can replace spinach in a pie. Dried flowers from chamomile are an excellent tea that also strengthens the nerves so that you can better cope with your wild garden.