Top tips for managing weeds | Gardening 101 | Gardening Australia

Clarence has tips and techniques to get those pesky weeds under control. Subscribe 🔔 http://ab.co/GA-subscribe
Gardeners spend a lot of time managing weeds, and perhaps that’s the price we have to pay for the pleasure we get from all other aspects of gardening. Weeds will often overwhelm their new home if not carefully managed, and each state has a list of priority species. Clarence shows us some top tips for managing these proliferating outsiders in our gardens.

Turkey Rhubarb, Rumex sagittatus:
Turkey rhubarb is a vigorous perennial climber and is on the priority list in the Illawarra, south coast of NSW. Unmanaged, it will choke out native plant species and kill animal habitat, which can literally drive plants and animals to extinction. Once you’ve identified the fleshy arrow-shaped leaves, you’ll need to move some of the materials around it to chase the roots all the way down to a solid round tuber. The problem with pulling these weeds is that the vine can easily snap and leave the tuber behind to resprout. It also has a very long root system; even small plants can have roots up to half a meter in length. Be persistent and follow the root all the way down to the tuber and search for any nearby tubers, too.

Onion Weed, Asphodelus fistulosus:
Another annoying weed is onion weed, which does resemble an onion in both form and smell. The only way to get it out is to dig deep and lift the bulb and surrounding soil. Position your trowel a few cms away from the weed because the main bulb has tiny satellite bulbs, each of which will produce a whole new plant. If you haven't got all of it out, it will continue to proliferate, so get in there and get rid of it.

Nut Grass, Cyperus rotundus:
Weeds are good at what they do, and the perfect example is nut grass. It will be a few shades paler than the green of your lawn and if you trace back to the root, you will see why it got this name. It has nut-shaped tubers on its roots which grow in clusters along rhizomes which travel underground. It can grow for meters popping up a new plant at each tuber cluster.

If you’d like to know more about weeds, visit: Weeds Australia

Over 28,000 plants have been introduced in Australia with around 3,000 of them considered weeds. Many have villainous sounding names, like bridal creeper, cats claw vine, Chilean needle grass, apple of Sodom, and prickly pear. Some are weeds in their own country, like dandelions and thistles, but also some of our native plants can be environmental weeds in the wrong spots, such as the Cootamundra wattle, Acacia baileyana.

Methods for control:
Stop weeds from going to seed by cutting off the flowers.

Cover the area with black plastic or a tarp to block out the light and heat up the soil.

Place weed material in clear plastic bags and let the sun’s heat kill the seeds before composting.

Mulch well to suppress weed seeds germinating.

Plant densely with plants you like so there are fewer spots for the weeds to take hold.

Nothing beats persistence!
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