Content
- The natural miracle weapon against weeds - groundcover
- What speaks for the weed control by ground cover
- What has to be taken into account when using weed-inhibiting ground cover
- Thorough weed removal before planting
- Keep groundcover tight
- Suitable groundcover species for weed prevention
Ground cover not only protects against weeds, they also look really pretty
The natural miracle weapon against weeds - groundcover
The inhibition of weed growth is one of the most popular uses of ground cover. They reliably close wide areas, are often quite decorative and also soil-improving. We will show you how you can promote their anti-weed effect.
What speaks for the weed control by ground cover
It is not without good reason that groundcover planting is an established method of permanently greening otherwise bare surfaces in an easy-care manner. The vigorous species form willingly dense plant carpets on flat areas, around which one can not or does not care too much. Such areas can be approximately:
In addition to horticultural relief, the ground cover in such places have other benefits: they have a soil-stabilizing effect, prevent surface erosion by weather conditions such as strong wind or rain and activate the soil life at the same time, by continuously secrete moisture, process fall foliage to humus and provide nutrients for ground users ,
With their often dense, assertive root system, they prevent annoying weeds from spreading to those spots - and all in a natural way. Groundcoverers can thus save not only the strenuous Sisyphus work of weeding, but possibly also the use of environmentally harmful herbicides or other rabid methods such as scavenging.
An ideal solution is ground cover for planting shrubs or trunk trees with delicate root system, under which weeds should not be removed by rough mechanical intervention. The ground cover makes a clever combination with its plant carpet gently that no weeds come up and instead provides an attractive surface to the high plant.
Ground coverers as weedkillers are therefore recommended for many reasons:
What has to be taken into account when using weed-inhibiting ground cover
Although they have a reputation for virtually no care and take care of themselves and weed control - a bit of support for weed work needs some ground cover. Especially when you first plant them.
Thorough weed removal before planting
Even a vigorous, robust ground cover in its start phase is not automatically powerful enough against stubborn weeds such as couch grass, greed or stinging nettles. If you want to plant a surface with a ground cover, it is important to prepare the ground carefully and remove all weeds and plant remains. This can be quite tedious, especially with weeds like Giersch, which forms subterranean shoots.
In order to successfully settle the groundcover, however, the preparation is worthwhile. Because the more thoroughly you have cleaned out the substrate, the less you have to reckon with emerging weeds during the growth phase. Hacking in the ground cover mesh is not only taboo in the fragile growth phase, but also basically to be avoided. It damages the coherent root system and can tear unwanted gaps.
Keep groundcover tight
So that the ground cover can fulfill its weed-inhibiting task permanently to your satisfaction, it is advisable to condense it in the first years by purposeful cut. If you leave it to yourself when growing up, it forms long shoots at the tips, so that at the plant bases ever larger gaps form - here weeds but then sometimes easy play.
Shorten speedy shoots in the initial phase as regularly as possible - this will cause the plant to exorcise at the base and gradually condense. Last but not least, the plant carpet also looks much neater by this measure.
Suitable groundcover species for weed prevention
Not all groundcover species are so vigorous and form such a dense root system that they are suitable for targeted weed control. So select as closely as possible awake varieties, which connect with roots, branches and foliage intensively above the ground. Such varieties are for example:
What you should also be aware of is that the permanent weed control effect on evergreen ground cover varieties improves. If they keep their silhouetted foliage even in winter, they can kill even very robust, cold-resistant weeds in the long run. Evergreen and densely awake varieties are about:
For the gentle weed control among shrub and stem shrubs, however, ground cover crops should be selected with less root system so that they do not suffocate that of the high plant. In addition, they should of course be able to cope with a partially shaded to shady location. Suitable varieties with a somewhat looser growth are: