5 tips to conquer weeds

Even in this cold, cold weather the weeds have started their sly march towards garden domination.

To combat these vicious nutrient thieves without devoting your whole weekend try these hacks.

• Not enough time to tackle them all? Prioritise any weeds in flower or seed - if the seed gets away from you you will be spending a lot more time chasing thousands of baby weeds. Take them down before they multiply!

• Mulch - The easiest hack you’ll learn. Mulch will block light to the soil that helps weeds germinate and grow. Not sure if you have enough? 50 - 75 mm thickness will be a good depth to keep weeds down while still letting most rain through.

• Hand weed after it rains - wet soil is softer and will usually be easier to grasp the weed at the base and remove it roots and all or use a hand trowel to get in under the root or bulb.

• Use ground covers - they cover the soil and out-compete young weeds for sunlight, nutrient and water. This is often the second stage of a two step plan with mulch as it will take time for them to grow but the right plant will be a great low maintenance and permanent solution.

• Newspaper - best used with mulch to keep it in place, a thick level of newspaper will kill off most stubborn weeds but will break down over time. Water the soil and layers of newspaper thoroughly to ensure good contact and allow air and water to travel into the soil.

AND ONE TO AVOID…

What ever you do don’t use solid black plastic to smother weeds. Left down too long the plastic will stop water and sunlight getting to your soil and turn it water repellant and lifeless forcing plants to search for water.