Three Rules of Weeding in Your Georgia Garden

All of Georgia has seen a large amount of rain this summer. Rain is great for our crops and also great for weeds and if you have gotten lazy with the summer heat your plots may have more weeds than crop. You are not alone! This may be a great time to review best management practices for weed control.

Weeds can be a big problem in a community or school garden.  A very big problem.  Knowing how to weed correctly will make this job less of a headache.   An informal poll was taken and we asked experienced gardeners to give their top three rules of weeding and we present them here:

Rule #1:  Get the roots out.

If you just remove the leaves above ground chances are the weeds will come back and you will need to perform the same weeding chore over again.  Many perennial weeds grow from underground roots and tubers.  Those need to be removed as well.

 

Weeding in Your Georgia Garden
Get those roots out!

Rule #2:  Remove the weeds before they make seeds.

If your weeds are allowed to flower and make seeds your work will get much harder.  Weed plants can make an incredible amount of seeds.  For example, common chickweed can produce 800 seeds per plant.  Dandelion flowers can make 40-100 seeds.   Crabgrass can produce 53,000 seeds per plant and pigweed can produce over 200,000 seeds per plant.  Don’t let those weeds flower!

Weeding in Your Georgia Garden
You don’t want this!

Rule #3:  Don’t let weeding get out of hand.

If you don’t routinely remove weeds you could be looking at a plot of weeds that seems overwhelming to tend.  Your vegetable production will suffer as the weeds take up the water, nutrients, and space that should be used for your plants.  And, it will take a lot of initiative to start the long process of taking back that space from the weeds.

Weeding in Your Georgia Garden
Don’t let weeds take over your community or school garden plot.

Knowing what weeds you have could be helpful in coming up with a long-term weed management plan.  Your local UGA Extension agent can help with weed plant identification and help you find strategies to minimize weed issues.

Happy Gardening!

 

Becky Griffin
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3 thoughts on “Three Rules of Weeding in Your Georgia Garden”

  1. I think’get the roots out’ is the one I struggle with the most, especially when I ‘let the weeding get out of hand’ – I run out of patience and the weeds spread to the point it is hard to tell where the center of the plant is!

    Reply
  2. I am a senior citizen. Are there classes that I could take at any of the Tech Centers or around the area in gardening?
    Than you,
    Margie Smith

    Reply
    • Hi Margie, Where are you located? At the Events page of this blog we have listed classes all around the metro Atlanta area so take a look at those. Your local UGA Extension office offers classes year round so make sure you are on their mailing list. Also, the botanical gardens in Athens, Griffin, and Atlanta offer workshops. Gwinnett Tech and University of Georgia both offer upper level training.

      Reply

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