5 Ways To Banish Neighbours’ Weeds From Your Garden

Tired of being invaded by weeds coming from next door? We show you the 5 most effective ways to solve the problem.

Weeds spread through the air and along the ground. The main methods to fight them involves herbicides, planting barriers, mulch, edging and keeping your lawn as healthy as possible.

Weeds are one of the worst nightmares for a gardener. But once you know how to banish the enemy, your garden has a green and weed-free future!

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5 Methods To Prevent A Neighbour’s Weeds From Infecting Your Garden

Oh, the horror. You spend untold hours to craft your patch of heaven in the back yard and once again, the neighbour’s have contributed a few weeds. While your neighbours might be oblivious to the fact, the new weeds are an eyesore in the garden and you understandably want to prevent it from happening again.

Here are 5 ways to weed-proof your lawn:

1. Keep your lawn as healthy and robust as possible.
2. Install edging compartments.
3. Use herbicides.
4. Grow fences or add barriers.
5. Smother the weeds.

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Focus On The Health And Vibrancy Of Your Grass

When you really nurture your lawn, you can look forward to two benefits. The first is pretty obvious - you will get a lovely green lawn. But a more unexpected perk is effective weed control.

The key to this is apparently to aerate the soil. This process demands that you make holes in the ground so that oxygen can circulate better underground. The holes also ensure that fertilizer reaches the roots of the grass and that water penetrates deeply as well. At the same time, when you are actively busy with aerating, fertilizing, and watering your lawn on a regular basis, it makes it very hard for the seeds of weeds to settle down and germinate.

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Install Edging Compartments

What the heck is edging? Glad you asked! Edging can be done both with specialized devices but if you are frugal and do not mind a little hard work, you can also edge your garden with nothing but a spade and some mulch.

Edging is basically just a way to compartmentalize your garden. A lot of weeds spread through their roots and this will prevent root-networks from spreading from one block to the other compartments of your garden.

Artificial Edging For Your Garden

There is a host of artificial barriers that you can use underground. These are usually available online or at your local gardening store. This might be the pricier option but it will also last for a long time which is perfect if you do not want to spend too much time fighting weeds.

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How To Create Edging Borders By Hand

If you are an avid gardener, then you have probably already done it! Remember that V-shaped border you dug around a batch of flowers? That is edging in a nutshell. You simply create deep V-shaped trenches around your plants. Give those plants a good spoiling by filling the trench with mulch! This method is great if you want to stop the weeds and keep your plants in top shape.

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How To Use Herbicides To Fight Weeds

The use of herbicides in the garden is a touchy subject. Too many products are toxic. Needless to say, these are not safe around children, pets, people with medical conditions, and women who are pregnant. For this reason, always try your best to use a non-toxic herbicide for your garden.

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How Do I Use Herbicides To Kill Weeds?

Step 1: Identify which species of weed or weeds your garden is struggling with.

Step 2: Find a herbicidal product that specifically deals with your problem. But if you can find a broad-spectrum herbicide that also deals with your specific weeds, then you can use that as well.

Step 3: Read the instructions carefully.

Step 4: Only use the product as directed by the instructions. This way, you will get the best results.

You Can Grow Barriers Or Add Solid Fences

A high and solid fence can stop the wind from picking up seeds in your neighbour’s garden and planting them on your lawn. Just remember, depending on where you live there might be a law regarding fences higher than two meters. If you live in such a region, you might have to get planning permission to extend any fence beyond the height of two meters.

Also, check what the laws permit as far as your neighbour’s rights are concerned. In some places, if your neighbour refuses your dream of a high fence, they actually have a legal foot to stand on. So, before you invest all that money and effort, only to have it ruined by a grumpy neighbour, find out if they are okay with it or if you lawfully need their permission.

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A barrier is also good to keep root-systems in check between properties. When the fence has a deep foundation, it acts as edging and you will not have to worry about weeds crawling over to your side. For this reason, a solid fence is a better choice otherwise the weeds will just grow through the bars of a picket-type fence.

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You do not need permission to grow a hedge along the shared border of your properties. As long as you keep it on your side, you can grow a row of bushy shrubs. Pick a species that are suited to hedge-life and will grow thick enough to stop any weeds from entering your garden.

How To Smother Weeds

This option is for areas in your garden that do not have grass. A well-kept rock garden is a thing of beauty but not when weeds start taking over. In this case, you can smother the weeds with an extra layer of rocks or even a sheet of plastic.

You can smother weeds with mulch as well. That sounds a bit counter-intuitive. Won’t the mulch help them to grow? Sometimes. But a good layer of mulch also makes weeds easier to pull from the earth - so zap them that way!

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A Quick Summary On How To Stop Neighbours’ Weeds From Entering Your Garden

• Weeds can ruin the look of a garden. When they pop up, they often come from a neighbour’s yard.
• Luckily, there are several DIY methods you can try to fight the invasion.
• You can smother weeds with a layer of mulch, rocks, and plastic.
• A solid barrier or hedge can also prevent weeds from invading your garden.
• Edging is the best way to stop weeds that spread through a root system.
• Another good option is a herbicide.