How To Save Your Flower Garden From Weeds

Weeds are the ultimate foe of every gardener. Menacing in great numbers, weeds suck the life off your plants and flowers by competing for the nutrients found in your garden. Don't let your flower garden transform to a grassland or a backyard fit for creepy movie shootings. Check out the following list and save your flower garden from weeds before everything's too late.

Before Gardening

• Before any weed has sprouted on your garden plot, spread a generous amount of corn meal gluten. Corn meal gluten adds nitrogen to the soil and suppresses any weed growth. Do not skip this step. If you do not clear your garden ahead of weeds and other invasive plants, you will end up wasting years on costly weed control.

• Use a weed-suppressing fabric if you don't feel like using corn meal gluten. Relatively low-maintenance and functioning like a protective cover on your garden bed, the weed-suppressing fabric smothers any existing weeds and prevents the growth of new ones. Once you've covered the area you want to protect, cut through the fabric and begin planting.

• Hack the weedy area with a hoe. Talk about backbreaking work and extreme violence, do this cathartic step prior to planting anything. Aside from digging trenches and softening the soil, the hoe slices through the weeds below the soil and prevents any nasty comebacks.

During Gardening

• Pull and pluck weeds from the face of the earth. Although time-consuming, rooting them out actually kills their chances of ever growing back.

• Surround your plants and flowers with mulch that is ideally at least two inches deep. Made of leaves, beans, straw, bark and other organic matter, mulch not only retains moisture but also deters weed growth and development.

• Douse the weeds with undiluted vinegar on hot days. The acetic acid content of vinegar does a good job of pickling your garden foes. Unless you want to transform your garden to a huge pickled dish however, avoid exposing your plants and flowers to vinegar.

• Spray the weeds with soapy water on hot days. Concoct the devious solution by mixing a tablespoon of liquid soap for every cup of water, or 16 grams of powdered soap for every two liters of water.

• Pour boiling water on the weeds to vent out your rage. The heat not only injures the weeds, but cooks them outright. Because boiling water is just as fatal to your plants and seedlings, do not apply this tip if you're clumsy.

• When feeling desperate about keeping your weed problem under control, use chemicals but exercise caution as these can hurt your plants and flowers too. Chemicals take care of both the top growth and roots of weeds, keeping your garden weed-free for months.

After Gardening

• Even after a huge session of weeding and garden cleaning, be on the constant and regular lookout for weeds. Once you catch sight of them, show them no mercy or, when hungry, eat the edible ones.