Garden Tips
Perennial ground covers suppress weeds and are easily maintained with preemergence herbicides.
Weed Management Strategies for Ornamental Landscape Beds and Ground Covers
MSU Extension Service Publication Number: P3279
View as PDF: P3279.pdf
Weed control in ornamental landscapes can be challenging. The diversity of plant material within these systems, and the types of weeds that occur, are very different from those of dense monoculture turfgrass. Frequent soil disturbance and the use of mulches further compound the complexity of weed control.
Design and Preparation
Ornamental landscapes require a large degree of planning and preparation in order to maximize their success. The most crucial step in ornamental bed preparation is planning. Selecting plant material and ensuring that the soil and site characteristics accommodate those plants are fundamental to successful landscapes. For instance, not all plants necessitate soil renovation; there are many that can readily handle wet, poorly drained soils or, alternatively, dry and unirrigated conditions. Healthy plants that compete with weeds for resources, such as nutrients, sunlight, and water, will help suppress weeds.
Small mass plantings make cultural practices and herbicide selection much easier during the maintenance of landscapes. Complex combinations of broadleaf, grass, and sedge plants may result in areas of the landscape where no chemical weed control is possible and ideal cultural practices are difficult to conduct.
Cultural weed control is crucial to a weed-free landscape. Dense plantings and year-round ground cover provide more weed suppression than even the best herbicide program. Achieving this density often requires multi-tiered plantings of upper-canopy plants supported by underlying ground covers.
Water management is an important function of many built landscapes. For example, landscapes can be designed to retain or slow runoff from impervious surfaces, such as roofs and parking lots (Figures 2 and 3). These landscapes are designed to slow rainwater infiltration through the natural soil, rather than being forced to run off quickly into sewers and streams. However, landscapes designed for such purposes must address two key issues:
Creative hardscapes can help alleviate these issues and also facilitate nonselective weed-control options. These hardscapes should be semi-pervious and accommodate excess runoff without soil erosion. In any case, proper soil amendments to allow drainage and nutrient retention are important principles that should not be overlooked in the design and installation of successful landscapes.
Download the pdf of this publication, above, for more detailed information on this topic.
Weed Management Strategies for Ornamental Landscape Beds and Ground Covers
MSU Extension Service Publication Number: P3279
View as PDF: P3279.pdf
Weed control in ornamental landscapes can be challenging. The diversity of plant material within these systems, and the types of weeds that occur, are very different from those of dense monoculture turfgrass. Frequent soil disturbance and the use of mulches further compound the complexity of weed control.
Design and Preparation
Ornamental landscapes require a large degree of planning and preparation in order to maximize their success. The most crucial step in ornamental bed preparation is planning. Selecting plant material and ensuring that the soil and site characteristics accommodate those plants are fundamental to successful landscapes. For instance, not all plants necessitate soil renovation; there are many that can readily handle wet, poorly drained soils or, alternatively, dry and unirrigated conditions. Healthy plants that compete with weeds for resources, such as nutrients, sunlight, and water, will help suppress weeds.
Small mass plantings make cultural practices and herbicide selection much easier during the maintenance of landscapes. Complex combinations of broadleaf, grass, and sedge plants may result in areas of the landscape where no chemical weed control is possible and ideal cultural practices are difficult to conduct.
Cultural weed control is crucial to a weed-free landscape. Dense plantings and year-round ground cover provide more weed suppression than even the best herbicide program. Achieving this density often requires multi-tiered plantings of upper-canopy plants supported by underlying ground covers.
Water management is an important function of many built landscapes. For example, landscapes can be designed to retain or slow runoff from impervious surfaces, such as roofs and parking lots (Figures 2 and 3). These landscapes are designed to slow rainwater infiltration through the natural soil, rather than being forced to run off quickly into sewers and streams. However, landscapes designed for such purposes must address two key issues:
- too much water runoff may disturb mulch and increase weeds, and
- too little surface and subsurface drainage may lead to soggy soil and, in turn, unhealthy landscape plants incapable of competing with opportunistic weeds.
Creative hardscapes can help alleviate these issues and also facilitate nonselective weed-control options. These hardscapes should be semi-pervious and accommodate excess runoff without soil erosion. In any case, proper soil amendments to allow drainage and nutrient retention are important principles that should not be overlooked in the design and installation of successful landscapes.
Download the pdf of this publication, above, for more detailed information on this topic.
