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Four Steps To A Weed Free Garden



If you are like many other people who enjoy gardening, weeding is probably your least favorite task. By following the four steps to a weed free garden, you will virtually eliminate the need to weed! Yes this method will take some time to complete, but it will free up more time throughout the course of the summer than it requires to complete.


Steps one and two are the easy part. First you must locate a source of cardboard. This can be done for free by visiting just about any store in your neighborhood. Check your local grocery stores or even a store like Wal-Mart. Most stores are more than willing to give you all the cardboard boxes you desire. Below is a photo of some cardboard strips that in my garden.

Cardboard Strips

Next you must find enough mulch to generously cover the entire surface of your garden. If you are lucky enough to know someone who works for a tree removal service, it is likely that you have a very valuable and untapped resource! Many tree removal companies will gladly give you as much mulch as you are willing to haul away. If you don't know anyone who works for one of these companies, you may be surprised what a simple phone call can do for you. The next photo shows one of the loads of mulch I hauled in for this project.

Mulch

Once these two items are secured, it is time to get to work. Step three is laying out the cardboard so that it covers your entire garden area. Be sure that you don't cover up your vegetable plants, but get the cardboard as close as possible without damaging them. This can be done a little at a time or all at once. It will be much easier to do this task in small sections if you are working on a windy day. The following picture shows the process I used to create the weed barrier in my garden.

Laying Out The Cardboard

The final step is to generously cover the cardboard with your new-found mulch again making sure that you don't do any damage to your plants. If you choose to place the cardboard down a little at a time, it is important that you don't place mulch near the edges so that you can easily overlap it with the next round.

Weed Free Garden

The end result will look similar to the photo above. Over the course of the summer the mulch will compost giving your soil the nutrients needed for the next growing season. This will improve your soil more with each passing year. The longer you garden, the better your soil will become! Straw can be used in place of the mulch. I decided on mulch because I happen to have a massive supply available that is free for the taking.


This method will most likely not completely eliminate the need to weed your garden, but it will certainly reduce the amount of time required for the task. Once gardening season is over, simply till the mulch and cardboard into the ground. This can be done in the fall after you pull the plants or in the spring before planting. By tilling the remains of your weed killer under you will begin to enrich and loosen the soil. Repeating this process year after year will build a superb soil for gardening in the future.


- Any day in the outdoors is a good day!

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