re: 2024 Spring Garden Thread

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What does everyone use for weed control in gardens

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Thick layer of pine straw mulch and hand pulling.

Very rarely do I have to resort to chemical control. If I do it’ll be with sethoxydim for invading grass, or very carefully administered glyphosate for everything else.

Stay away from potentially volatile broadleaf herbicides like dicamba and 2,4-D around the garden. Even on your surrounding lawn. Even if you don’t accidentally spray it on your desired plants, they can vaporize and still kill sensitive plants like tomatoes. It’s called volatilization. I learned the hard way one day years ago. I sprayed my yard with the winter weed cocktail one early spring morning. A little later I moved my seedlings outside a couple hours after I had sprayed. It warmed up nicely and I can remember getting a faint whiff of the Weed-Free-Zone smell in the air. Ended up losing all of my seedlings.

For my lawn I’ll spot spray my front lawn with Celsius. But I don’t spray anything in my backyard while the garden is growing.

ETA: The vinegar spray will work well to burn down some weeds. But perennials could potentially keep coming back. But it is a fairly safe option.