Weed management can be a hassle. For me, it has been the majority of the time I spend in the garden. So how can I reduce my weed management and spend more time with my plants? Should I spend this much energy weeding?
Control and Management
Once I’ve decided a plant is actually a weed or is simply growing where I don’t want it, see What is a weed really? The next question becomes how to manage it. Managing weeds is the majority of my time spent in the garden. Some people seek out chemicals, plastic barriers or mechanical labor. I want to outline the pros and cons of each of these and finally offer a fourth alternative for weed management.
Chemicals
Glyphosate has been the most widely used pesticide in the United States since 2001. (agriculturally) Most gardeners are not going to use glyphosate in their garden. A selective garden herbicides like this one is more likely to be used.
Pros
- Highly effective when applied correctly
- Chemicals can be selected for pre-emergence or emerged plants
- Some products provide residual control for weeks or months
Cons
- Glyphosate herbicides can damage garden plants
- Herbicides could be hazardous to your health
- Herbicides can alter local ecosystems and disrupt native pollinator activity
Plastic Barriers
Not all barriers are plastic, some people use burlap or other natural fibers to keep weeds down. The focus here is the commercially available weed mat for the gardener. Harvard estimates in a 2025 study that an estimated 42 thousand tonnes of plastic are used for domestic agriculture in the US annually.
Pros
- Highly effective at blocking new weeds from growing
- Can maintain moisture during dry times
- Prevents unwanted plants from spreading easily
Cons
- Micro plastics can be released into the soil, which may be taken up by plants root tips
- Slightly expensive since they need to be replaced, often once a year
- Can retain too much moisture or keep moisture out, causing issues for vegetable growth
Mechanical Labor
Mechanical labor can mean hoeing, tilling or just hand pulling. When using a motorized tiller the fuel can be expensive. Powered equipment also consumes fuel and contributes to air pollution. 2018 EPA study found that small off-road engines represented nearly 4% of all emissions of VOCs and 12% of all emissions of CO.
Pros
- If using a tiller this can be an easy way to clear an area of weeds quickly
- Any manual labor using hand tools or hand pulling can be a healthy activity
- Manual labor doesn’t have a huge environmental impact
Cons
- Can be time consuming, hand pulling especially
- Bare dirt can dry out soil quickly
- Some environmental impact when using powered equipment
The Fourth alternative
In recent years the trend has been to do what’s known as a lasagna method. Meaning to lay down cardboard, wood chips or hay and each year add another layer. Effectively smothering the weeds with consecutive layers of material. Since you are not disturbing the soil you are not bringing dormant seeds to the surface. Effectively preventing weeds before they start.
I think this is a very effective method of both weed control and improving soil health. By improving I mean increasing organic matter, ensuring beneficial bacteria, fungi and insects live in and around your garden. In my opinion, this represents the ideal balance between weed management and building healthy soil.
I want to take a moment to preface, this has nothing to do with restoring prairie or forest biomes. Adding cardboard and wood chips or hay to either of these areas does not promote native plants and animals. It may even hurt native species. This method is only for our gardens; where we are taking special cultivars from all over the world and growing food and ornamental plants. The native landscape almost never needs such a treatment and I cant imagine anyone from the USDA forestry service recommending it.
Layering or lasagna method allows gardeners to utilize hay or wood chips that would otherwise be left on the road side as fodder for our thriving gardens. Wood chips are readily available and most of the time free. Hay usually costs money but can be very economical when purchasing hay that’s not useful as animal fodder.
A note about both wood chips and hay. Some wood chips are cut from trees that had previously been sprayed with Picloram, a common herbicide, prior to being mulched. Similarly some hay can contain herbicides that are long lasting persistent chemicals. These can stay in the soil and plant material for several years. Ive read several stories of gardeners (experienced and novice) who received a load of chips or hay that had a herbicide present. The result is that typically the desired vegetable plant dies but the other possibility especially with glyphosate toxicity is that the plant could fail to produce seed and therefore the vegetables we desire.
This approach is still new to me, and I’ll continue updating these posts as I learn more. I grew up believing every garden needed to be tilled every spring before planting, followed by months of hoeing, pulling, and occasionally cussing at weeds. I’m hopeful that layering organic material will reduce the work while improving the soil at the same time. Only time—and the garden—will tell.