Most Effective Ways To Get Rid of Weeds

How do you get rid of weeds without picking them out by hand, one by one?

Here are some of the most effective ways I have found to get rid of weeds without the back-breaking labour.

Smother

Smothering weeds by removing their access to light is a really effective way to eliminate them.

You can use multiple materials for this, like the landscaping fabric above.

This can either be permanent or temporary.

Temporary covering of weeds is a great way to start a new bed. You cover the weeds and leave the fabric down for a year to eighteen months.

This kills off the vast majority of the weeds in the soil, making it a lot easier to keep on top of moving forward.

You can cut holes in landscaping fabric in order to grow plants through the gaps.

You could also build raised beds on top of the fabric and fill them with compost.

Just be aware though you are limiting the depth of your beds this way, as the material will always be there.

Instead, I like to use cardboard for this, like the photo below.

The cardboard hangs around long enough to kill off the weeds before rotting away under your compost, meaning there is no permanent barrier between your raised bed and the soil underneath.

If you are going to do this, then only use plain cardboard and make sure you have plenty of overlap between the layers.

If you don't overlap properly, you will soon find you have weeds poking through!

Burn

Now, this is one fun, and effective way to get rid of weeds.

Weed burners are growing in popularity, but most people use handheld gas burners or electric ones.

I am here to advocate for the bit gas burners with a propane tank, they are much more effective.

While the other two styles do work, they are slower and only good for smaller areas.

I have a whole article on the best weed burners if you want to check it out.

If you want my recommendation, then get the one below.

Weed Puller

My wife absolotuley loves this tool. The jaws essentially lock around the weed, and you then lever them out.

It works really well and makes a lot of weeding a breeze.

Particularly useful for those who struggle to bend down but it works well for anyone, to be honest.

It is really good at pulling out tap-rooted weeds like dandelions, and we have also found it works well on grasses.

Hoe's are an old-fashioned but super effective way of getting rid of weeds.

I use a dutch hoe and just give it a run along the surface of my soil every now and again.

It will get rid of any shallow-rooted annual weeds with ease.

I don't bother picking them up and just leave them on the surface to die, this makes regular weeding quick and easy.

Weed Killer

I really don't like using weedkillers; hence it is at the end of my list.

But one thing for sure is that you can't argue it's not effective. It's just the other problems that come with the use of weedkillers I don't like.

One of the biggest reasons for me growing my own crops is to have lots of organic problems, which is why I stay away from chemical weedkillers.