Thursday, May 17, 2012

Gardening! and Weed Pulling Tips

Overrun with weeds in the garden or flowerbeds? Keep reading for some practical weed pulling tips to keeping your garden spaces free of weeds.

I have spent the last week doing yard work. 
Spring Flowers
 I got flowers for mother's day. The kind that last all summer long. I filled this pot and my walkway with flowers. 

For the most part, I've been pulling weeds. I filled an entire truck bed with weeds.  Here's the main spot that I've been working on. 

On the left is what it looked like a few weeks ago. 



To the right is what it looks like now.  {Don't look too close. I pulled some of them last week and they're already starting to grow back}  Keep reading for my weeding tips!

practical weeding tips collage



The bare section in the back is where we're going to plant our pumpkins, watermelon and cucumbers. 

You can actually see the strawberry plants now. Along the fence we planted concord grapes {for juicing} We planted this whole section last year and it's thriving.

These are the first two to ripen.


And there are a whole bunch of blossoms. 



A few weeks from now we'll be busy picking and eating lots of strawberries.

Here's a look at one of our garden boxes. There are tomatoes and cantaloupe.

My husband planted them this year. 
We have two other boxes. One has peas, carrots and lettuce. The other we just planted with beans {seeds} yesterday.


Here are my raspberries:

 It's hard to believe I started with 6 small raspberry plants. Now the whole back corner of the house is covered with them. 

For what it's worth, here are my tips for weeding:

Weed Pulling Tips in the Garden



1. Probably the best thing you can do is to wet down the soil. This is especially important if you've become overrun with weeds like I had. I went out each night and dumped water all over all the weeds. Then the next morning the weeds pulled right out. The spots that I had not gotten very wet were much harder to pull.

2. Be prepared to get down and dirty. By this I mean wear old clothes and get down on your hands and knees. Nothing is harder on your back than bending at the waist and trying to pull weeds. To help protect your knees you can wear knee pads. I don't have any, so when I'm working in a rocky area or a spot filled with "pokey's", I grab a piece of cardboard to kneel on. Then the pokey's don't get me.

3. Pull weeds regularly. After the first spring weed pulling session, go out regularly{at least once a week} and pull any weeds that have popped up.  If they don't get to big, they are much easier to pull.

I feel a little like the pot calling the kettle black with that last tip. I always have good intentions, but by the end of the summer, I usually have neglected the garden. 

But this year I'm really going to try and keep the weeds pulled.

What are your tips for keeping your weeds down?

19 comments :

  1. Aren't weeds a pain? If I am not planting seeds in weed prone areas I use Preens Organic Weed Preventer. It doesn't stop all weeds but it reduces their numbers dramatically. It is safe to use around fruits and vegetables too, once they are established. Just don't use it in areas you will planting seeds - it will stop them growing too! I also use various mulches - newspaper mainly as we have plenty :)

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  2. Wow, that raspberry bush is enormous!! My boyfriend would love it. One day, one day I will have as beautiful a garden as yours. If I tried now the squirrels would eat everything... (they ate my tulips!!) Until then, I am admiring everyone else's! I'm so surprised some people actually have stuff ready to pick, we're only starting to plant here.
    I like your water trick for weeding, didn't know that one.

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  3. wow your raspberry bush is awesome and those strawberries look yummy. I have to ask how do you know when green beans are ready to be pull out?

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  4. I'm so jealous of areas of the country where gardens are already thriving! Loving the raspberries and strawberries!

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  5. Wouldn't be nice if weeds were useful and we didn't have to pull them! Great tips

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  6. Rachel! I LOVE strawberries! I would love to have a garden like that :) Please join us and link up at our Friday Block Party at Curb Alert! The party is open all weekend!
    See you there!
    Tami @ Curb Alert!
    http://tamicurbalert.blogspot.com/2012/05/friday-block-party-5-feature-from-party.html

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  7. Weeds! Oh I should be weeding right now but coming across your blog today was so much more fun. Looking forward to following your garden adventures.

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  8. Hi Rachel~

    Your gardens are looking great so far! I read all of your weeding advice, because I can use all the help I can get! There is a lot of weeding in my near future! ;)

    I hope you have a wonderful rest of your weekend! :)

    Blessings,
    Jenni

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  9. Rachel, Great tips. Now that school is out my kiddos will be doing the weeding. Thank goodness for summer. Thanks so much for linking up to Creative Thursday this week. I can't wait to see what you link up next week. Have a wonderful weekend.

    Michelle

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  10. Great tips!! I am totally envious of your raspberries! One day I hope to have that many.:) Thanks for sharing with us at Link It Up Thursday.

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  11. I am so envious, you have red strawberries already. I'm visiting from Not JUST a housewife where I linked to a post about my strawberries. Don't homegrown strawberries taste so much better

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  12. Yeah, I think the hardest part is being consistent at getting out there and keeping up with it. I can usually find a way to get rid of the weeds the first time of the season, but after that...I lack follow thru.
    Thanks for the tips.

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  13. Thanks for sharing these tips, I pulled some weeds out the other day and was shocked at how stubborn some of them were, they definitely didn't want to go anywhere!
    I love all the fruit and veggie you are growing, can't wait until I have a garden with enough room to grow our own.

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  14. Rachel, you are so right. They just keep coming back...like dust, dirt and dirty dishes. But keep up the good work. It always pays off! I found you at My Girlish Whims.
    Liz

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  15. I'm envious of your strawberries. My family had a huge garden when I was growing up, but we now live in a subdivision that doesn't allow vegetable gardens. We all miss it. There are seveal flower beds in our yard, so we keep busy weeding. Thanks for the tips on making this an easier task.

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  16. I totally use the wet soil trick while pulling weeds too. Especially with tough ones like the first time in the spring. Thanks for the tips :)

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  17. I get some perverse satisfaction in pulling weeds - especially the big ones! Great tips! Thanks for sharing at Mom On Timeout!

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  18. Thank you for the tips! I have a ton of weeds to pul this weekend. I'll try the water trick!!!

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  19. Good tips! Do you have any tips for keeping animals out of your vegetable garden?

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