Every person who has a small piece of land near the house is trying to make a beautiful flower bed out of it, which will bloom in spring and summer. Many people make real exhibits of art from flower beds. Neat, lush flower beds are what every gardener wants to see. But if you do not take care of such a flower bed, then over time it will overgrow with dollar weeds, which are very difficult to fight.
We believe that the most common method for controlling dollar weeds in a flower bed is weeding. But we know for sure that there are other effective methods, after which your flower bed will delight the eye for a long time without weeds.
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What are the flower beds?
Flower beds can be completely varied. It all depends on the seeds you have, the materials and how much time you have, and what kind of fantasy. Among the common types of flower beds, we can distinguish the following:
Vertical flower bed. We use this option in areas where there is very little free space. Such a flower bed can also be arranged along the fence or hung along the walls of the house. For manufacturing flower beds, we use flowerpots, suspended vertically.
Permanent flower bed. These beds are most often used in cities, planting plants that bloom in the same period. The flower beds are massive and have a geometric shape.
Irregular flower beds. Such flower beds are like natural flower beds, they do not have clear standards. We plant perennial plants in such flower beds, then they are removed.
Mono flower bed. Flowers from one subspecies, one color, are planted in such a flower bed.
Raised flower bed. For such a flower bed, boxes, we use flowerpots. The essence of such a flower bed is that plants do not grow on the ground. We cover special flowerpots with a drainage layer and soil, after which we plant some flowers.
Regardless of what kind of flower bed you organize in your garden, weeds will appear in it, with which you will need to fight. Of course, you don’t want to spend half a day in the garden picking up weeds. What methods should be used to achieve the desired result? Let’s talk about this further.
The mechanical method of weed control
The simplest, but not the fastest method is loosening the soil. Digging up the soil, you remove the dollar weed root system and remove it completely. Young weeds are easily uprooted from the ground. For adult dollar weeds with a stronger root system, you may sometimes need a hoe, flat cutter, and a small garden shovel. This method will only be effective before the dollar weeds produce seeds. We also recommend using this method after rain. The soil becomes soft and loose, and it will be easier for you to remove weeds. Also, don’t forget about organic fertilizers. It is during the loosening of the earth that you can fertilize it properly.
Use of chemical treatment
We can protect flower beds from dollar weeds using chemical herbicides. This is a very simple method. This method is suitable for flower beds with annual plants. Before planting the seeds of annual flowers in the spring, you can treat the flower bed with solid preparations.
Related Review: Best Post-Emergent Herbicides
If you will fight only one type of weed, then you need to use selective chemicals. These herbicides kill a certain type of weed but do not harm the flowers. Most often, such drugs are used if moss appears on your flower bed.
Use of ground covers
You can use plants in the flowerbed that inhibit the growth of weeds, prevent them from breaking through. These are such plants as periwinkle, sedum, saxifrage. They grow with a carpet, densely covering the ground and preventing weeds from growing over the territory of the flower bed. Such plants have very beautiful flowering, they will not only become a pleasant decoration for your flower garden but will also help in the fight against weeds.
Remove light
Another effective method is to remove the access of light to the ground. For this, it is fashionable to use thick cardboard, roofing material, thick black film, linoleum, etc. Place any of the above materials firmly on the bed before planting the plants. Leave it on for 3 weeks. After that, remove the cover, remove the weeds with a rake, loosen the ground and plant the flowers in the flower bed.
Weeds won’t bother you during the season. After 3 months, this procedure will need to repeat it. This method is also well suited for flower beds in which flowers grow in flowerpots. You can lay out a layer of cardboard or dark film, put up flowerpots with flowers, and cover everything with gravel.
Don’t leave the ground empty
If you do not plan to plant flowers in the club, then so that it does not overgrow with weeds, plant it with clover, rye, or mustard. Such plants will give the flowerbed a well-groomed look and prevent weeds from spreading through the flowerbed.
Plan your flower bed in advance
One of the most effective methods of weed control is a well-thought-out flower bed. For this, we use several options for creating flower beds.
The most popular way is to use geotextiles. The base of the flower bed is laid out for them. The flowers that you will plant in the flowerbed are planted in advance in small flowerpots or containers. Then we insert the containers into special holes in the geotextile. Further, so that weeds do not grow, the top layer of the flower bed must be covered. For this, we use gravel.
Gravel is convenient not only because it prevents weeds from breaking through but also because there are many options. We can match gravel to color, size, and thus decorate your flower bed.
This method of organizing a flower bed will save you from weeds for 2-3 years. This time is enough for perennial plants, which after 3 years we still update with new ones. This means that the flower bed can be updated, changed flowerpots, improved something, replaced gravel, or shifted in a unique combination.
A few final words
The problem of weeds worries gardeners year after year. Everyone tries to use all available methods to make the flower bed beautiful and well-groomed. We have put together the most common and safest methods for controlling weeds in a flower bed. Follow our advice, experiment and your flower bed will become a masterpiece of garden art and will delight not only you but also passers-by.
