A weed is any plant that grows where it’s not wanted. They compete with other cultivated plants for nutrients. It is, therefore, important to identify them and remove them.
Before we get to that though, let’s have a closer look at…
Why Weeding Is Important
Weeding is not only great for the overall aesthetic of your garden, but it has a lot of positive impacts on the health of your plants. There’s only a certain amount of water and nutrients that soil can provide to your plants, and if your plants have to share with weeds, it may not be enough to keep help them thrive.
Also, if you let weeds grow too big, they can block other plants from receiving precious sunlight and their roots can spread and choke surrounding plants.
How To Weed
When it comes to weeding your garden at home, you have 2 choices:
- Weeding by hand and with hand tools
- Spraying with weed killer
Let’s have a closer look at those two options.
Hand Weeding
In this video above we see a US-based landscape gardner showing the basic tools and techniques for hand weeding. Take a watch, try his techniques in your own garden, and remember to be patient and enjoy your time in your garden. Weeding by hand can be a chore or it can be therapeatic. It’s just a matter of attitude.
Spraying
The guy in this video does a great job of showing you what you need to know about spraying weeds. We’ll just emphasize a few points:
- spray the foliage, they poison is absorbed through the foliage, not the roots
- don’t spray when rain is coming, the foliage won’t have time to fully absorb the poison
- don’t spray on a windy day, you won’t get the poison where you want it
Check The Weather Before You Spray
Weed Identification
Let’s have a look at some of the most common weeds on the Gold Coast, in Brisbane and around northern NSW. For further information we can recommend Brisbane City Council’s exellent weed identication tool.
Annuals
- Spiny Burrgrass
- Parthenium Weed
- Annual Ragweed
- Noogoora Burr
- Bathurst Burr
- Saffron Thistle
- Devil’s Claw
Biennials
- Wild Radish
- Fireweed
Perennials
- Perennial Ragweed
- Blue Heliotrope
- Mother-In-Law’s Tongue
- Singapore Daisy
- Lippia
- Giant Parramatta Grass
- African Lovegrass
- Giant Rat’s Tail Grass
- Mission Grass
- Torpedo Grass
Tips For Keeping Your Backyard Weed-Free
- Weed a little often & keep your garden under control. Letting weeds grow too big before you kill them will cause them to spread.
- Don’t give weeds a chance to see the light of day by covering your garden with mulch.
- If you can’t pull out the weeds because the roots are too tight, the next best thing is to chop off their heads. This will stop seedhead from spreading when it rains.
- Planting closer together will reduce sunlight from hitting your soil & minimise the potential for weeds.
- Try to avoid watering any additional soil that’s not near your plants. Depriving weeds of water is good way to stop them appearing altogether.
- The higher quality soil you use, the less likely you are to develop weeds down the track.
Links To Services Related Services:
You might also be interested in...
Three Tips For Better Pruning
10 Money-Saving Gardening Hacks
Need a Gold Coast, Brisbane or northern NSW gardner to help with your weeds?
Edmund has decades of experience as a gardener and landscaper, let him give you the advice you need to bring your garden to its best. Use the form on this page to send him a message. Or click the button below to call him.
