Desert Gardener:

It’s better to stop weeds sooner rather than later

Sunday, July 5, 2009 | 7:37 a.m.

Angela O'Callaghan

Caring for a landscape during the height of summer means trying to do the most work in the most efficient way possible. So often, problems that started out small become unmanageable because they were allowed to grow in magnitude, uncontrolled. Gardening in spite of the weather is a challenge. Observing problems early can make all the difference, not only in the summer, but year round. This is the underlying principle for the practice of “scouting the landscape.” Keeping an eye out for problems allows one to find them while they can still be controlled with not too much effort.

Weeds, for instance. While our delicate flowers, even our tough agaves, are bravely, if slowly, growing, there are often weeds pushing their way through the mulch. This might seem unfair, since after all, we apply mulch to stop weeds from appearing. Imagine how much worse it would be if they had no obstruction!

Weeds will often appear at the most inconvenient spots. They show up at base of other plants (the pricklier the better!) or at the juncture of rock mulch and sidewalks, where it is extremely difficult to get hold. It is not that they are smart or evil, but they are certainly the most opportunistic of characters! The more established they are allowed to get, the greater the problem they will present, and the more they will interfere with the landscape. A good general rule is: the longer a plant is allowed to remain in the soil, the bigger it will become. That means both above and below ground level. Much of a plant’s life relies on a successful root system, which might be considerably larger than the stems, flowers and leaves.

Even if a weedy plant does have the opportunity to get established, it is not too late to get rid of it. Make sure to do this before it produces flowers and seeds. For plants that we generally consider weeds, flowers might not be particularly noticeable or attractive, but they are still responsible for creating seeds for the next generation of plants.

It can be tempting to use an herbicide, but if so, this is a task that can only be done in the early morning, before temperatures rise into the range of the sauté pan. Otherwise the chemical can generate its own host of problems. Often, a simple hoe can cut them down or pull weeds out of the soil, or break off enough of them to slow down their progress.

The critical element of is to look for problems and deal with them before they require huge effort, not something anyone want to undertake when we are living in the middle of a Mojave summer.

Angela O’Callaghan is the area specialist in social horticulture for the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. She can be reached c/o the Home News, 2275 Corporate Circle, Third Floor, Henderson, NV 89074, or TheNews@hbcpub.com.