In The Weeds There are several tried and true tricks that we have found helpful in controlling weeds in our gardens.

• In the vegetable garden lay down 3 ft weed mats folded or cut in half and stapled down between rows to give you a 1.5 ft path to walk on. This keeps weeds off the path. Keep the weed mat as close to the row of stems of each veggie plant. We usually fold the weed mat back when we replant that row and then lay it back down again. Use rocks to weigh the weed mat work well if you don’t want to use staples.

• Perennial gardens are a little more maintenance. Get the weeds while they are young for they are not as established and easier to pull. Or cultivate often lightly with your trowel to disturb the tiny weed seedlings. Cultivating also introduces some air into the soil, which is good. You can mulch if you like the look, but I recommend you put folded newspaper under the mulch for a more effective weed barrier. Another way too keep weeds down is to plant annuals or ground covers in a lot of the gaps. If plants take up the space there is no room for weeds .