A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The Food Garden Forum Vegetable Gardening Weeds in a Perennial Garden

We want to set aside part of our fenced-in garden area for perennials such as asparagus, strawberries, and some blueberry bushes, to name a few. How do I prepare the soil in the beds for these plants to ensure they are weed-free? We struggle with weeds in our garden every year because we don't use chemicals of any kind, such as herbicides. We use black cloth or just pull them out and by the end of the season, it gets pretty weedy, but that's okay because then we till it all in. But we don't want the perennial beds to get like that. I thought about using raised beds for the perennials, but there is still the issue of the weeds.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

The only thing I can suggest would be the weed cloth which you are already using. I love mulching. With or without weedcloth. Alone, it still grows weeds but they pull out so much easier.

Ohhhhhhhh Boy if someone will tell me a way for absolute weed free bedding,, PlZZZZZZZZZzz let me know too,,
It seems no matter what you do there are going to be weeds,, the birds dropppings, the wind blowing them in,, there are ,many natural ways the weeds will grow cloth or not, organic or not,, It seems unavoidable,,

Thanks, Tina -
I think you're probably right. And with the good cloth, it'll last a long time too.
Aleta

Yep, you're right. weeds are a constant battle for the true gardener! I know that our neighbors squirt herbicide on theirs before planting, and it does help some I guess, but we just don't like chemicals, but yet we're not TOTALLY organic. I'll use some "garden safe" pesticides when things get real bad, but this past year I spread milky spores around so hopefully the japanese beetles won't be so bad this year. Those are our worst insects. We have infestation of those asian ladybugs so we don't have any aphids at all. Anyway, we've had this garden for three years. It was nothing but a pasture when we tilled it but boy once we did, BIG weeds that we would never have thought were there came shooting up. That first year it looked like a jungle! We've gotten a big of a handle on it since then. We'll see how the perennnial beds do. Thanks

When I start a new bed I always just do lasagna beds for two reasons. One I was told if you dig you wake up weed seeds that will live like forever just waiting for you to dig and two I am too lazy to dig up the ground. I put down shreaded newspaper, topsoil, compost and keep layering then I put clear plastic over it all summer. The next year I plant.

It keeps the weeds down but nothing is 100% weed free.

Yes the cloth your using is good, or you can use tash bags but then youll have to plant over the trash bags and such you know the plastic will last for a long time since plastic akes a very long time to decompose.

or you can take old newspapers and pile and pile pile them on top of one another around your plants i dont know how it keeps weeds coming but it does because my grandma does this but ive never tried and and i dont see how it works but its worth a try

You have to be careful though, too much newspaper~or plastic doesn't allow water to get through. And the heat from the plastic can kill your plants as well.

I used a weed barrier for a few years then tore it out and used 3 layers of newspaper, now I have just mulch. It seems the weeds get less and less over the years. My front foundation garden hasn't had weeds in it in a year or so.

Mind you lesson learned on putting a bird feeder in my back garden, ooooh the millet will grow forever

I guess nothing will ever be weed free but a few years of hard work can really get you close to it.

Last year I tried the newspaper thing. It really worked. I put it down around all of my flowers in my perennial garden and around my pond.. it was ALOT of work, but it was worth it. I mulched pretty heavily on top of that, so I am sure that helped too. I am curious to see what happens this spring.. to see how much the newspaper and mulch helps. I foresee buying several truckloads of mulch again this year though. The greenhouse right next door to us sells in bulk.. I bought 4 truckloads last year.. That is alot of mulch.. lol But we hadn't mulched for a few years.. so I didn't have ANY.. and we filled in an area under our steps leading up to our deck with mulch.. just because it was such a troublesome spot.