There is nothing more pleasant than sitting in the vegetable garden chatting with a friend while weeding a bed of beets. Too bad we all don’t have time for that! A weed is defined as a plant growing out of place. They rob nutrients and water from the vegetables we want. We will start by identifying a few of the more common weeds in our area. Then we will look at strategies to get the weeds out of our gardens and keep them away including cultivation, timing, cover crops and mulches.

HOPE REQUARDT has been obsessed with vegetable gardening pretty much all her life. She became a life member of Seedsavers Exchange in 1987 and has maintained several varieties of tomatoes and squashes since then. She is a master gardener and has taught organic gardening and animal husbandry for 10 years.