Simply leaving weeds over the winter is not an option for the majority of recreational gardeners. If the weather is favorable, you should plan a few more hours in the first days of October to remove weeds, as excessive wild growth unnecessarily removes a lot of nutrients from the garden soil during the rest period, which we would rather use again for our young plants in the spring.
How should you pull weeds in autumn?
To effectively pull weeds in autumn, first loosen the damp soil with a sturdy trident, pull out larger plants including their roots, collect smaller plants and rake the soil several times. Weeds should be disposed of on Saturdays and in a dry place to avoid re-spreading.
Every garden owner has favored certain methods when it comes to controlling weeds. We reported last month on how to combat this pest in the smallest of spaces, for example in the joints of sidewalks or terraces that are difficult to keep clean. Here are a few tips on how nettles, couch grass, knotweed etc. can be banished from the outdoors a little easier.
Wait and let it grow!?
If it doesn't bother you too much and spoils the look of the garden, just try to wait a few days longer before weeding and fighting the weeds. Removing larger, 5 to 10 cm high plants with stumps and stems from the bed is much more effective than just dragging the hoe over the garden soil with a hoe and chopping up the greenery into small pieces, which afterwards is laborious and time-consuming to pick up with your fingers.
Back-friendly weeding actually works like this
- loosen the still wet soil with a sturdy trident (never use those flexible metal claws from the hardware store's digging table!), if possible down to the weed roots, one square meter at a time;
- Grip the plants firmly just above the ground and slowly pull them out completely by the roots;
- Smaller plants can now also be collected more easily;
- then rake the soil thoroughly several times with the trident and also collect the remaining plants that are visible afterwards;
- after the soil has dried, if necessary, remove any plant residues that have already dried out;
The method has the advantage that the beds remain weed-free for at least three times as long as with normal hoeing. The easiest way to do this is to work on your knees, although you've even seen gardeners tie a milking stool to themselves.
A few more tips against the weed plague?
- The deep-growing taproots of dandelions and thistle are best cut as far below the soil surface as possible. You can make particularly good progress with an asparagus cutter from a garden specialist store.
- Under bushes, rose plants or fruit trees, a 5 to 10 cm thick layer of mulch on the ground helps so that weeds cannot sprout unhindered; Wood chips with bark mulch with the addition of horn shavings for fertilization would be an optimal mixture;
- Couch grass and groundweed are among the most stubborn weeds that can only be permanently destroyed by digging them up without leaving any residue; The only thing that usually helps here is a digging fork to cultivate the affected areas again for subsequent planting;
- Planting out ground cover plants that significantly limit or even make impossible the growth of weeds in these areas;
- Bed covers with mulching paper or opaque plastic films; To insert the plants (e.g. strawberries), the top layer is cut out in a cross shape at these points; Weeds can no longer reach the surface; At the same time, the geothermal heat remains in the ground, which further promotes plant growth;
No matter which option you choose - always keep in mind that weeds do not belong in the compost as long as they are not seed-free and dry. Due to the low temperatures of around 40 °C that develop in the compost heap (4), the weed seedlings and seeds do not always die completely. They even spread unhindered in the composter and perhaps months later in the cold frame if you, in what appears to be good faith, mix the ripe compost into the soil as organic natural fertilizer. That wouldn't be harmful to our he alth, but it would be poisonous to plant growth. But let’s stay on the subject of poison for a bit?
