Weeds really are like belly fat. No matter how hard you try (or think you are trying), both of them keep coming back. You work and work for HOURS and they find a way to creep back into your life.
You try new things, you spend money on new products, and you might see some results for a few days but then suddenly..
they're back.
And you start over. Pretty soon you become depressed and start blaming yourself because surely you must be doing something wrong, right? You start thinking that maybe you are just not good enough. You were never meant to have a flat stomach or a weed-free lawn.
This leads to you eventually giving up, quitting. Throwing your hands up and saying, "Forget it! I'm not even going to care anymore because nothing I do is good enough!"
Getting Rid of Weeds is Easier than Getting Rid of Stomach Fat
The key is making time and setting up a routine. Just like exercise, you have to do it consistently in order for it to make any difference at all. But the thing about exercise is that it needs it to be a daily ritual. Starting out, it probably won't hurt to work on your lawn a little bit each day but once you get to the point to where you're just keeping it weed-free, you're looking at once, maybe twice a week tops.
Once a Week
Be strict with yourself. The obvious time for yard care is Saturday morning. Tell yourself that every Saturday at 7am, you are going to be out in the yard picking some weeds. Pick and pull until they're all gone. If you are doing it consistently each Saturday, there is no way you are going to find yourself up to your neck in weed problems.
The best way to kill weeds is doing so with the environment in mind. Here are some Eco-Friendly Options For Weed Control:
- Hand Pulling - More of that in a minute.
- Boiling Water - For weeds in sidewalks, driveways etc, you can pour boiling water directly on the weed.
- Corn Gluten Meal
- Solarization
- Hand Torches
- Mulch
Picking Weeds By Hand
If you have a few weeds popping up here and there in your flower bed or around your yard, the best thing you can do is take the time to pull the weeds, one by one, by hand. Get down and dirty and make sure you pull up the roots.
The nice thing about picking weeds by hand is that you see the results instantly. With weed killers you don't really know if it's going to work and even when it does work, it doesn't work right away.
Pulling weeds can be a relaxing and meditative exercise. Turn on some music that puts you in a good mood and lose yourself in pulling weeds. Don't think about how terrible and nasty they are for ruining your yard. Think about how much joy it brings you to kill them! Click here to read the rest of the post.
Here are some of my previous posts about eco-friendly weed control methods.
Please Don't Poison My Planet
Zen and the Art of Landscape Maintenance
Changing Your Relationship With Weeds
AND, here's one that might help anyone with a belly-fat problem!
Health Benefits of Eco-Friendly Landscaping
Sadly, many of the plants that people think of as "weeds" are vital to wildlife:
ReplyDeleteViolets–the food plant for differnt species of fritillary butterflies
Dandelions–as one of the first plants to bloom in the spring (and winter in warmer areas), they provide an important food source for the earliest insects of spring; in fall they are sometimes the ONLY plant blooming late in the season (such as right now) to provide nectar for our dangerously close to imperiled Monarch butterflies
Crabgrass–Dark-eyed Juncos and other sparrows feed on the seeds during the winter
Lawns should not be "weed" (I hate this word)-free. It would be much healthier if it contained a variety of plants instead of a monoculture.