Early spring perennials are sure putting on a gorgeous show! But if you’ve got weeds—ugh! Don’t let weeding woes take all the fun out of your flower gardening. Just follow my simple suggestions for keeping these pesky plants to a minimum, and you’ll have a great-looking perennial garden with a minimum of muss and fuss. Here’s how:

• As soon as you see a weed, pull it. If you wait, it’s just going to get bigger, and in the meantime, it’s stealing water and nutrients that your perennials and bulbs could be using to give you more beautiful blooms.
• Always use special care when cultivating, to avoid damaging bulbs or the roots of your bloomin’ beauties. If you’re using a hoe, make short, shallow, scraping motions instead of chopping deep down into the soil.
• You’ll never need to use weed killers in your flower gardens as long as you put an adequate amount of mulch down to cover the soil. Grass clippings, chopped leaves, shredded bark, and pine needles all fill the bill. You’ll just need to pull the occasional weed.
• When you’re cleaning out your flowerbeds, make sure you remove all the weeds you can see before adding a fresh layer of mulch. Don’t count on the mulch to smother weeds, because it won’t!
• If you need to get rid of tough-as-nails weeds growing through cracks in patios and garden walkways, pour some salt on them. In a day or two, the weeds will curl up and die from dehydration, and you can easily pull them out.

Want a cheap, long lasting, and easy-to-wield weeding tool? The next time you see a set of steak knives on sale for a buck or two, grab ‘em. Steak knives make super weapons in the war against weeds!

For hundreds of handy hints for weedin’, feedin’, and waterin’ the right way, check out my Perfect Perennials book—FREE for 21 days!