Getting Rid of Weeds in a Vegetable Garden?

At the beginning of April, my husband tilled up our vegetable garden. It looked great and was definitely ready to plant. Ended up holding off while he ripped down the old rickety fence and built a new one. Got even further delayed by the great Nashville flood and all the downpours we've seemed to have every weekend since! I think I am FINALLY ready to plant my garden, but now we have crazy weeds growing everywhere! (The picture was taken over two weeks ago, so it looks even worse now!) Is it best to simply till these up again? Or is there some sort of spray we can use that's safe to use in gardens? I'm a garden newbie in every sense of the word, so any help would be great! Thanks!!!

It would appear that most of that is grass encroaching from outside the fence in addition to weeds. You can hand pull them or hoe them out, but tilling at this point may just stir up more weed seeds. You can cover the areas with black plastic for a few days and the heat generated under the plastic will burn them up and kill the weeds.

Here are a few links to herbicides(weed killers) that are considered safe for use in vegetable gardens. Always remember to follow label instructions exactly, especially any safety measures noted.

http://extension.umd.edu/publications/pdfs/fs555.pdf

http://www.naturalhub.com/grow_food_weed_control.htm

This link is to your Cooperative extension service who has a wealth of useful info for both the new and experienced gardener

http://www.utextension.utk.edu/publications/homeGarden/default.asp

Wow... thank you for the references! Truly appreciate it. Showed my husband. Think we're going to try the black plastic tarp and see how that pans out. And if that doesn't do the trick, we may try the glyphosate route. Hopefully, we'll be able to get the garden going shortly!!!

There is also a product called a pre-emergent. If you are not planting seeds, you can sprinkle that on the ground after planting, and it will help keep weed seeds from sprouting. Various brands are out there, Preen, Amaze and Greenlight are a few.

As wet as your soil probably still is, a black tarp will help boil the weeds from the garden. Grin I would suggest using the glysophate to create a band around the outside perimeter of the planting area. That will help keep weeds from reseeding back into your garden. We used a 3 foot wide roll of weedblock cloth folded in half lengthwise to surround the outside perimeter or the veggie garden. We piled a layer of leaves over it to help block out the sun completely.

For a garden that size you could pull or hoe the weeds nearly about as fast as laying plastic or spraying "roundup". By the way, "burning" them out with black plastic (aka solarizing) is normally something that takes 4-6 weeks, not a quick fix.

If you choose to use a weed killer I'd recommend something more organically approved than glyphosate/Round Up; too many reports have been made concerning its safety in a food garden (or around children).

I sure do agree with moonhowl though on not tilling at this point. Depending on what kind of grass that is, or what kind of weed, you would most likely only encourage new growth of weeds/grass.

Again, between you and your hubby I'm sure you could have that garden weeded in less than an hours time, pulling the weeds out by their roots, cultivating the soil at the same time, then planting the very same day. And just think, you get exercise w/out having to buy a subscription to a health club! Yay!!

Happy Gardening!
Shoe

I agree Shoe, hence the recommendation to use the Glysophate outside the perimeter of the garden rather than in the garden.

After you pull the weeds, be sure to mulch!

shai-
That's a great looking garden spot, and the soil looks better than some others in the area which are red clay with lots of chert. The fence down to the ground will keep rabbits out, and maybe groundhogs too. I have had a problem with rabbits eating my bean sprouts and pea sprouts as soon as they emerge, but I never had a fence. As small as your plot is, you should be able to weed it with a hoe. It is good exercize, and if you keep after the task, it only takes a few minutes every week. I use a hoe with a rounded rectangular blade, not a triangular one. When the hot weather comes, you will want to do this just around sunup or just after sundown. You can also mulch if you want. This will add organic material to your soil for future benefit. You can used bagged hardwood mulch or bulk. Its good natural material. Avoid applying anything to your graden that has weed seeds in it, like local manure or hay. Where we live, Bermuda type grass is a real problem. It spreads by roots, unlike fescue. It looks like you have fescue. Beware shrubs from local shrub sellers. Their rootballs are full of Bermuda grass roots and they will invade your lawn and never retreat. I recommend you buy bare root shrubs or else buy them somewhere north like Illinois, not McMinnville, TN. You can consider sparying Roundup around the outside of your plot to keep any invading grass from moving in. Make sure you grow one plant of Bradley tomato. Bradleys are a local favorite and a very flavorful tomato. I also recommend Cherokee Purple, an heirloom tomato with outstanding taste and size. Don't plant too much squash. It makes huge plants that will take up a large part of your plot. You could grow some pole beans right up the side of your fence and make use of the vertical space. I suggest McCasslan, which has outstanding taste, but any pole bean will do. I think you have a great start on a productive garden.

I feel your pain--weeds are the bane of my existence here, since the previous owners of this home let the yard go CRAZY with them.

Looks like some great advice here. I know it's been mentioned, but just to reiterate, pulling. tilling and hoeing can really stir up more weed seeds, bringing them to the surface. There can literally be thousands of seeds in a cubic foot of soil. So unless you get some pre-emergent weed killer down and mulch quickly, you're going to continue fighting a losing battle. You'll have to hoe or pull some weeds, though--it's inevitable.

To keep weeds down between rows, you might consider what perennial gardeners do with the lasagna gardening technique--lay down either multiple layers of newspaper and or heavy cardboard, then wet it to keep it in place and mulch over that. It's biodegradable and will help suppress weeds, at least keeping them out of your planting rows.

We used to till our vegetable garden every year too. But this year I'm trying something different. I read in an article that you shouldn't till because it stirs up seeds and kills many of the beneficial insects in the soil. Made sense to me to I thought "what the hell, why not".

We pulled the weeds up as best we could. I then loosened the soil with a rake and a hoe and planted. Then invested in a cultivator with a long handle. I used it over the weekend and it did a great job separating the weeds right at the soil level. You can clean them out if you want, but the article I read said you should leave them in for the bugs to eat.

So far so good. If I have to do it once a week, I can live with that knowing I'm getting some exercise and being green while doing it. My garden is about 20' x 20' so it didn't take long at all.