When the growth of our crops and flowers slow down due to stressful growing conditions, the weeds take over. There are several reason why we need to keep weeds under control in our flower and vegetable gardens.
Weeds are strong competitors with garden crops for available water, nutrients, and sunlight.
As the weeds grow tall, they shade the flowers and vegetables, resulting in spindly, unproductive plants. Reduced air circulation created by tall weeds encourages the development and spread of foliage diseases, such as early blight and septoria leaf spot on tomatoes. Also, a weedy garden often has more insect problems. The best time to control weeds is while they are small. Unfortunately, this requires repeated cultivation through the growing season as weed seeds continue to germinate during the spring and summer months.