Weeds compete with the crop for soil moisture, sunlight, space, and plant nutrients. They compound disease problems and serve as hiding places for insects. Also, weeds may prevent dusts and sprays from thoroughly covering your garden plants, resulting in poor pest control. Grasses are multistemmed plants with fibrous root systems. Once grasses become established, they are difficult to control without injuring the vegetable crops.
Grasses are very competitive in gardens and make harvesting difficult.
New weed seed may be brought into a garden on plows and mowers that have been used in weedy areas. Poultry litter, compost, and manures sometimes contain troublesome weed seed. Weedy hay used for mulch may bring a number of new weed problems. Occasionally, home-saved vegetable seed may also include some weed seed. Most of the weed problems in the garden are homegrown problems.