• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Cottage at the Crossroads

menu icon
go to homepage
  • Gardening
  • Recipes
  • Canning
  • DIY
  • Holidays
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Pinterest
  • search icon
    Homepage link
    • Gardening
    • Recipes
    • Canning
    • DIY
    • Holidays
    • Email
    • Facebook
    • Pinterest
  • ×
    Home » Garden » Gardening How To

    How to Control the Weeds in Your Vegetable Garden

    By: Leo · Updated: 7 Jul, '18 · This post may contain affiliate links · 23 Comments

    Sharing is caring!

    It's the time of year when I start looking back and reflecting on what I did right and what I did wrong in this year's vegetable garden. With the hot days of summer on us, our vegetable garden is beginning to wind down.

    Wooden garden sign | cottage at the crossroads
    Tomatoes | cottage at the crossroads

    From the look of things, it appears that we did a lot right this year. Not only these tomatoes but almost everything that we planted produced an abundance of delicious vegetables.

    Using landscaping fabric in your vegetable garden wins the war on weeds! | cottage at the crossroads

    I'm convinced that what you see here has made all the difference. It's a commercial grade landscape fabric. With this, we've won the battle of weeds this year. It's rather expensive, but in my opinion, well worth the investment. This particular type of landscape fabric is over $80 for a 6 foot x 300 foot roll. The big box stores sell a thinner fabric that just doesn't work as well. I buy this at a local farm supply store.  Our garden is rather large, so I used 3 of these rolls.

    Garden staple | cottage at the crossroads

    After rolling out the landscape fabric, I used these ground staples to secure it in place. I overlapped each row about 6-8 inches. Using scissors, we cut an opening in the fabric, dug a hole, added some compost, and planted our vegetables. You learn more in my post how to grow your own tomatoes.

    How to grow vegetables weed-free | cottage at the crossroads

    I prefer to use wheat straw for mulch. It's an attractive cover over the landscape fabric and the drip lines.

    How to have a weed-free vegetable garden | cottage at the crossroads

    The vining plants such as watermelon, honeydews, and canteloupe seem to love the fabric and straw.

    How to have a weed-free vegetable garden | cottage at the crossroads

    And we've had no trouble with rotting fruit because it's not sitting on damp soil.

    How to have a weed-free vegetable garden | cottage at the crossroads

    This is the first year that we haven't lost our squash and zucchini plants to powdery mildew. It has to be because the landscape fabric keeps the vegetables from coming in contact with the soil.

    How to have a weed-free vegetable garden | cottage at the crossroads

    It's a pleasure picking the tomatoes with not a weed in sight!

    How to have a weed-free vegetable garden | cottage at the crossroads

    The landscape fabric and planting more plants to attract the pollinators definitely increased the production this year.

    How to have a weed-free vegetable garden | cottage at the crossroads

    And makes a stroll through the garden more pleasurable, too. No weeds here under these flowers because we put landscape fabric here, too!

    How to have a weed-free vegetable garden | cottage at the crossroads

    Doesn't this look a lot better than a patch of weeds?

    More Gardening How To

    • Best way to remove weeds from large area
      Best Ways To Remove Weeds From a Large Area
    • Potting mix vs. Potting soil
      Potting Mix vs. Potting Soil
    • How to dry and store fresh garden herbs
      How To Dry Herbs
    • 1
      Instant Pot Canning Basics

    Sharing is caring!

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

      Leave a Reply Cancel reply

      Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

      This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

    1. NVSC Diane

      November 04, 2014 at 11:11 am

      Love your pics (and the lovely cat), and thanks for the advice on the landscape fabric and straw. Am trying to get a garden going in my backyard, overwhelmed by the weeds that have been allowed to proliferate and this will help a lot - not to mention giving me a little extra motivation with the thought of less work next year!! BTW everyone up here in the shag club loves your music - keep up the great work 🙂
      PS For your husband's "bored w/okra syndrome," I take okra and cut into small pieces, fry up/brown up with onions and without batter or flour in a bit of olive oil (I used to dip them in egg/flour a la the Southern Tradition, but maybe you cut a few calories here), add parmesan and a couple of scrambled eggs for a sort of Southern Frittata brunch thing...

      Reply
    2. Babs

      July 28, 2014 at 8:20 pm

      Leo and Jane, Wow! Your garden looks amazing. Great idea for the landscaping fabric. What will you do with all the tomatoes? Can or freeze?

      Reply
    3. Laura / Pet Scribbles

      July 27, 2014 at 11:57 am

      I'm sharing this with my husband, as we haven't used landscape fabric in our vegetable garden but definitely should! Seeing your results and reading the benefits (not veggies sitting in damp earth) has me convinced! Thanks for the advice!

      Reply
    4. Joani

      July 23, 2014 at 10:56 pm

      It looks awesome. All the tomatoes. WOW. Thanks for sharing.

      Reply
    5. Jean Windham

      July 22, 2014 at 10:59 am

      I can see the benefit of using the better grade landscape fabric. You and Jane have a beautiful garden and have a lot of vegetables to show for it. i can remember hoeing the garden as a little girl for my parents garden. We all worked really hard to keep the weeds under control. The garden is pretty and produces. Jean

      Reply
    6. [email protected]

      July 22, 2014 at 3:39 am

      Wow...so many great looking tomatoes. We've planted our first garden in 20 years and we're still waiting for the ripening stage. Thanks so much for the great tip. It seems like I do nothing else but pick weeds all the time.
      K.

      Reply
    7. SheilaG @ Plum Doodles

      July 21, 2014 at 1:07 pm

      Your garden looks amazing. Thanks for the info on a better grade of landscape fabric- I'll have to keep that in mind.

      Reply
    8. debbiedoos

      July 21, 2014 at 10:18 am

      You and Leo certainly do a lot more right than wrong, that's for sure. LOOKS amazing out there Jane.

      Reply
    9. Madonna/aka/Ms. Lemon

      July 21, 2014 at 10:03 am

      Oh my, the tomatoes. Looks like you found the answer.

      Madonna

      Reply
    10. Denise

      July 21, 2014 at 9:19 am

      Wow! I am so impressed! Gosh, I remember all the hoeing and weeding we had to do as kids in my parent's garden, wasn't looking forward to that when hubby retires~~now I know what to do to avoid that! Thank you so much!

      Reply
    11. Ann

      July 21, 2014 at 8:37 am

      Hi Leo! As always I am so impressed with your knowledge and love of gardening. Would this be something to use on an existing perennial garden? It might be hard to work around already established plants. Would love to try though. Thank you!

      Reply
    12. Mary

      July 21, 2014 at 6:05 am

      Your garden is beautiful and productive Jane & Leo! What a bumper crop of tomatoes too!

      Reply
    13. Sharon

      July 21, 2014 at 12:30 am

      so, so beautiful! and a sight for sore eyes... I didn't get to garden this year and I'm really missing all the blooms.

      Reply
    14. Helen

      July 21, 2014 at 12:19 am

      Jane and Leo, y'all never cease to amaze me with your garden and neat ideas. Thanks for the info on the garden fabric!

      Reply
    15. Dolly Sarrio

      July 20, 2014 at 10:48 pm

      Looking good! I love that stuff too! Saves a lot of backaches.

      Reply
    16. Pat @ LifeAtLydiasHouse

      July 20, 2014 at 9:33 pm

      Your garden is absolutely beautiful!! Y'all are real pros at this garden business! Just curious, do you have bees too? I have read that a bee hive increases production tremendously and wondered if you have one.

      Reply
    17. Yvonne @ StoneGable

      July 20, 2014 at 9:00 pm

      What a fabulous tip! I'm bookmarking this for next spring! You are going to be busy canning and freezing!!!! What a fabulous garden you have!!!

      Just a question, do you put new garden fabric down every year?

      Reply
      • Leo Windham

        July 20, 2014 at 9:21 pm

        Yvonne, that depends on what kind of shape it's in when I pull it up at the end of this growing season. I would like to reuse it if I can, but I'm not sure if the planting holes will be in the right places. It may just be easier to start over again next year with new fabric.

        Reply
    18. Barbara (WA)

      July 20, 2014 at 7:11 pm

      I have learned a lot from your posts about your garden, thank you.

      Reply
    19. Donna Thompson

      July 20, 2014 at 4:21 pm

      Your garden is beautiful! What time is din/din? XXOO

      Reply
    20. Dawn

      July 20, 2014 at 3:05 pm

      OMG you sure did get a lot of produce this year. What are you going to do with all those tomatoes? I use straw for weed control but nothing between the rows. Yours looks fabulous.

      Reply
    21. Pam @diy Design Fanatic

      July 20, 2014 at 2:10 pm

      Awesome! You and Leo have a fabulous garden.

      Reply
    22. Barbara F.

      July 20, 2014 at 2:02 pm

      LOVE your fabulous garden, Leo and Jane. Your flowers and veggies are so beautiful.

      Reply

    Primary Sidebar

    Jane @ Cottage at the Crossroads

    We're Jane and Leo!

    Thanks for stopping by! We're renovating and preserving our family's 100 year old home place where we garden, complete a few DIY projects, and do some cooking. Please leave us a comment so that we'll know that you were here.

    about →

    Reader Favorites

    • Setting up a gardening journal
      How to Set Up a Garden Journal
    • Wooden garden obelisks
      DIY Wooden Garden Obelisk
    • Sweet cucumber relish featured
      Sweet Cucumber Relish
    • Cucumbers in raised beds
      Growing Cucumbers in Raised Beds

    Gardening How-tos

    • Growing tomatoes from seed to garden
      Growing Tomatoes From Seed To Garden
    • Best cucumber companion plants
      Best Cucumber Companion Plants Reviewed
    • Bee on flower in vegetable garden
      The Benefit of Flowers in a Vegetable Garden
    • Garden1
      Planting a Spring Garden

    Growing Vegetables

    • Fall decor 063
      Our Fall Vegetable Garden
    • Garden and yard may 2013 132
      Evolution of a Garden
    • Celebrity tomatoes in cages
      How to Grow Your Own Tomatoes
    • Growing lettuce in containers 030
      Growing Lettuce in Containers

    Footer

    As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

    © 2021 Cottage at the Crossroads · All Rights Reserved

    Contact Us · Privacy

    911 shares