Taking Care of Weeds, the Organic Way

Weeding is part of every garden's task list, but for an organic gardener, it's much more challenging than it is for more conventional agriculturalists. Instead of reaching for a bottle of chemical herbicide, a little more elbow grease, and sometimes some creativity must be used. The museum's garden has been maintained chemical-free and we reap the benefits with good harvests, great biodiversity, and little-to-know impact from pests, but weeds are an obstacle that we fight daily.

Our two main intruders are Bermuda grass and nut grass. Most Southeast Texas have these in their yards and they are the bane of any gardener's existence. Bermuda grass is an invasive plant that arrived from, well, Bermuda, but it is popular because of its fast, low-growing foliage and durability. It's aggressive and some gardeners even resort to calling it, "devil grass."

The rhizomatous nut grass, which got its name from its underground tubers, is considered one of the worst weeds. Pulling this weed by hand is almost done in vain, as any tuber, rhizome, or root left in the ground can sprout a new crop of healthy grass, which can quickly sprout several other new plants in no time.

Much to our dismay, both grasses thrive in dry, hot climates, and conventional weeding is almost futile. Most resources recommend resorting to toxic chemicals, like RoundUp, but these applications can leach to other areas of the garden, even if used nearby or on paths. There are organic options, like Avenger, but they must be applied several times to these persistent plants.

We are currently trying a technique called soil solarization on our garden paths. This is done by laying thick, clear plastic over wet weeds for several weeks. The warm sun essentially cooks the soil, making it uninhabitable, so it must be done in stages if used on areas where seeds will be sown. We are testing the process on our paths first to see how well it will work.

We hope our patience pays off and will keep note of the progress. Keep your fingers crossed!

Soil solarization is used as an organic technique for ridding gardens of weeds. Thick plastic is applied over wet weeds to "cook" the soil, killing the weeds and any seeds or tubers up to 12" underground.