Focus on the positive…  Planting beautiful flowers…

Rather then spending your time weeding, weeding, weeding, spend your time planting, planting, planting.  In a way, you are creating a barrier with plants that will suppress the nasty old unwanted weeds with layers of bulbs, perennial plant roots, annuals and shrubs.

For example, let’s take a typical spring Saturday of gardening.  Gardener Weeder spends all day pulling weeds, while Gardener Planter spends that time planting a combination of bulbs, seeds, and pretty plants, tugging away weeds as she plants, maybe even planting a hydrangea.

Fast-forward two weeks, Gardener Weeder looks outside to see her once neat and tidy weed-free garden bed full of creeping Charlie and other weeds sprouting back up, while Gardener Planter sees beautiful blooms of lilies and gladiolus, dahlias, snapdragons, etc. — maybe a weed or two as well, but the good will far outweigh the bad.

This is a principle I have practiced for years now.  I would rather spend my time focusing on the growing process than on the killing process.  I know many a gardener who battles weeds using . . . gasp . . .nasty mulches, nasty chemicals and nasty black plastic liners.  Gasp.  Where is the joy in all of that?  Use the money you would spend on plastic liners, weed-killing chemicals and unnatural red mulch on flowers, bulbs and beautiful trees and shrubs.  Think of your soil as a plant; it needs the same love you give your plants so that it is a healthy environment for earthworms and other beneficial insects that will help your flowers flourish.

So the next time you have a few hours on a glorious spring or summer day and your flower beds are full of weeds, grab a flat of flowers for under $20 and plant away, pulling up the weeds as you plant, and create that barrier of “FLOWER MULCH.”