The best strategies for controlling weeds in the home garden and landscape include mulching, hand-pulling, using tools such as the hoe and rototiller, and preventing existing weeds from going to seed. Mulching around plants will go a long way toward reducing the ability of weeds to cause problems. Organic mulches tend to cool the soil, as well as conserve soil moisture and reduce weed germinati...

Nine Tips for Chemical-Free Home Weed Control

By Travis W. Gannon, Ph.D., and Fred H. Yelverton, Ph.D., members of the Weed Science Society of America

If you’re taking a chemical-free approach to home weed control, you’ve most likely discovered it can be a real challenge. Without herbicides in your arsenal, it can be tough to keep the invaders out of your lawn and natural areas, flower beds and...

The best time to remove weeds

especially dandelions, is a full day or two after a rain when the ground just starts to firm-up again.  If the soil is too hard your weeding tool is going to difficulty penetrating the soil.  If the ground is too soft the bottom plate will have nothing to push against to drive the shaft upward to engage the trigger mechaniism.  The goal is to have just enough resist...

Here are some interesting facts about the dandelion flower:

• The dandelion is the only flower that represents the 3 celestial bodies of the sun, moon and stars.

• The yellow flower resembles the sun, the puff ball resembles the moon and the dispersing seeds resemble the stars.The dandelion flower opens to greet the morning and closes in the evening to go to sleep.

• Every part of the da...

There is nothing more frustrating than to spray your lawn with a herbicide or to physically extract a weed only to have 2 more take it's place.  I liken it to the cartoon shows when I was a kid where an alarm clock would not stop ringing and each time it was struck with a large hammer it became a smaller version of itself and still kept ringing. Pulling weeds is very much like that to me.  I wo...