Garden Weed Control

How to Keep Your Flowerbeds Clear of Weeds

Flowerbeds, especially when they are new, contain plants dotted within an area of prepared bare soil. This is a rather unnatural situation, normally areas of good soil are rapidly colonised by surrounding plants and emerging seeds. Gardeners try to prevent the natural colonisation of the bare soil to provide space for the things they have planted, and so the plants don’t have competition for space, light, water, and nutrients.

Once the desirable plants are established, they may occupy and cover all the soil, so that no bare soil remains for weeds to establish and compete with them. However, this can take years of growth, or you may prefer the specimen plant look. In either case you will be faced with the ongoing task of preventing unwanted plants (weeds) colonising the spaces.

Prevention is Better than Cure

Take the time to make sure you clear all the weeds, including their roots from the flowerbed when you are preparing it for planting. Dig over the soil of your empty bed and remove all root fragments. A garden sieve will help filter out the roots and will also improve the tilth of the soil.

Some safe organic herbicides such as Weed Weapon Natural Power are registered for use in vegetable plots. It can also be used in flowerbeds and can be used to kill young weeds that might emerge from any seeds in the soil; after clearing the soil and sieving, leave the bed for 2-3 weeks and wait to see what seeds germinate. Spray any emerged seedlings with the Natural Power. Such fatty acid type herbicides do not affect the soil or the plants you will be planting.

For more established weeds use rapidly effective Weed Weapon Extra Strength. This will also not leave any residual effect in the soil, and planting can be done immediately after the weeds are dead.

Weed Surpressing Weed Weapon Preventer

Kiwicare Weed Weapon Preventer is a granular pre-emergent herbicide that stops weeds emerging in your flowerbeds for up to 3 months. It can be sprinkled on the soil around mature plants without harming them. The herbicides are active on shoots emerging in the soil, and not on the roots of existing plants or of those mature plants that might be planted.

It is particularly effective applied below a layer of weed suppressing mulch.

Regularly Tend Your Flowerbeds

Weeds are always easiest to get rid of when they are immature. Young weeds can be manually removed with ease.

Herbicides such as Weed Weapon Extra Strength and Natural Power can be used to carefully spray the weeds, but care must be taken to apply in such a way that the herbicide will not drift onto the desirable plants.

Keeping weeds out of your flowerbeds will help you ensure your plants will have all the nutrients, water, light, and space they need. And pests and disease will not be hiding in the weeds ready to infest or infect your plants.

How to Keep Your Lawn Free of Weeds

Healthy thick swards of lawn grass are resistant to disease and out-compete weeds, reducing the need for applications of herbicide. Also, herbicides work best on growing lawns which have adequate nutrient.

LawnPro Turfclean Ultra has been formulated for the control of the widest range of broadleaf weeds in New Zealand lawns. The combination of 4 active ingredients is balanced to ensure the most common weeds in New Zealand lawns are controlled with no risk of burning the fine lawn grasses grown as lawns in New Zealand.

McGregor’s Weed Out Lawn Weed Control is also effective against the most common broadleaf lawn weeds.

For lawns prone to Onehunga prickle weed apply Turfclean Ultra before the weed flowers and produces its prickly seeds.

It is also a good idea to encourage the lawn grass with LawnPro 7-Day-Green fertiliser. As well as fertiliser, this product contains 70% lime which sweetens the soil, raising the pH and deterring many weeds.