I have been begging my husband for a load of bark mulch for about 4 years now. We purchased two loads soon after we moved into our house and redid the gardens, but since then any mulch that has been applied has either come from a bag or relocated from the back yard. Needless to say I’m convinced that had I been able to purchase bark in that 4 year period my garden would not look as horrible as it does today. There is something to be said for a good layer of weed suppression.

Since bark is rather expensive we have opted for simple hand weeding. It is a tiring back breaking process that if not completed by late spring will surely kill you in the heat of the summer. I weed in the mornings if possible or only on cloudy days since the majority of my weeding needs to be done in the hottest parts of our garden. I attempted to get a few things done yesterday, but even at 75 degrees outside that was too much.

I do have a plan to make future weeding easier. I started this little experiment earlier this year and so far it is paying off (sort of).

My mother-in-law came to assist me with some gardening earlier this spring and between the two of us we knocked out a huge section of my corner garden bed. Once the ground was clear I laid down a nice thick layer of Tagro. If you shovel it yourself Tagro is free. The unfortunate part was that I didn’t keep up on the weeding of that area and now the weeds have grown back. The good news is that since I put down the layer of Tagro the weeds in that section are much easier to pull. I didn’t mix the Tagro into the soil, but rather used it as sort of a mulch. This is not the Tagro Mulch that can be available, but straight forward I shoveled it into buckets and put it in the back of my SUV stuff.

I haven’t gotten around that side of the bed to reweed that section, but I gave a few weeds a test pull and sure enough they come out much easier than the other spots. Another garden blogger has the same idea and it seems to be working for her also.

Another trick for easier weeding is for the ground to be somewhat moist. If the ground is allowed to dry out (like mine often is) the weeding is much tougher. My plan, along with the Tagro, is to hook up micro-irrigation sprinklers in the sections that I’ve weeded to keep the soil moist and to aid in future weeding.

I already have sprinklers like this in other flower beds and it seems to be working. I go out to the beds about once a week or so and use my circle hoe to attack the little weed sprouts. As the fall and following spring arrive I will lay down a nice layer of corn gluten to prevent the new weed sprouts and hopefully by next year I will have my beautiful weed-less garden back.