Discovering weeds hiding amongst your plants is basically like finding a silent murderer in your garden. Weeds make it extremely difficult for your other plants to flourish as it competes for space, nutrients, and sunlight. While eliminating them off might be your most immediate concern, it’s important to pause and evaluate the weed killer you use. Some of the most popular weed killers have harmful chemicals that can leach into fruits, vegetables, and groundwater, demonstrating that just because they are widely used doesn’t mean they are the best option. For weed control that isn’t as costly and more effective, here are some strategies that you can try.
Crowd Out the Weeds
Fighting the weeds head-on is the best way to tackle them, and the way to do this in your garden is by keeping your lawn thick and healthy. Weeds do not survive for very long where there’s no space to grow, so thick plantings and groundcover will usually do the trick to crowd out those pesky weeds. The reason this works is that weeds are plants that take advantage of open areas. By blocking out the open areas where they can grow, then you are cutting off their resources.
To do this on your lawn, try mowing it high and fertilize to keep it as competitive as possible. Choose a colder month to reseed as the weeds will likely be dead and unable to grow back, so your grass seeds have to contend with less competition. Choosing high-quality grass seeds will also go a long way in getting rid of any weeds.
Keep Soil Healthy
After you’ve established an environment to crowd out weeds, maintaining these plants is your next priority. Keep soil fertile, well-drained, and aerated. While weeds are (unfortunately) resilient and can grow in any type of soil, improving the soil quality of your lawn will at least give other plants an even chance of success.
Till and Hoe the Soil 
Tilling your garden allows the soil to loosen up, which is excellent for lawn weed control. It allows the crop to start with a clean slate and buries seeds deep enough that they can’t germinate. However, heed caution with rotating dormant weed seeds back to the surface as a result. Be prepared to handle these weeds should they grow.
Hoeing the topsoil can also control weeds by pulling away at the young, small growths. Use short, shallow strokes to cut off weeds at soil level while being careful with going deeper, bringing more weed seeds closer to the surface and ready for germination.
Use Organic Herbicides
Unlike synthetic chemical weed killers, herbicides are organic substances that use essential oils and fatty acids to disrupt biological processes in weeds to cause eventual plant death. They are low in toxicity and break down naturally without leaving any harmful traces that can leach into groundwater or fruits and vegetables. Organic products are more effective in controlling weeds when they’re young, but they may not perform well with more mature plants.
Some of the most effective ways to use organic weed killers for lawns are by combining them with hand weeding, targeting younger weeds, covering the entire plant, and reapplications at temperatures well above 75 degrees, preferably with full sunlight.
Conclusion
Getting rid of weeds requires work, but it is not an impossible task. Understanding how weeds grow and thrive is key to stopping them from spreading and throttling the rest of your garden. Using the right weed killer to supplement tried and true gardening methods is key to keeping your other plants healthy, strong, and formidable competition against the weeds. Using an organic weed killer is one of the best options for a natural, harmless way to eliminate weeds and keep your garden blooming and healthy!
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