Weeding Now Can Help Prevent Weeds in the Spring — What You Should Do This Fall

With a new season approaching, it can be difficult to know when is the right time to weed, especially when it comes to your beloved garden.

Weeding at the wrong time may be detrimental to your plants and veggies, so it’s important to know when exactly is the perfect time to do the dirty work.

Here’s what you should know about weeding in the fall and how to keep your plants thriving through the changing seasons.

Should You Still Pull Weeds in the Fall?

So, is fall a good time to pull weeds from your garden and lawn? Absolutely—fall is the perfect time to weed and control your garden, as well as control any difficult landscape weeds.

So, why are September and early October the peak times to weed your garden and lawn? For one, it’s easier to spot overgrown weeds and wilting plants in the fall when the colors of spring and summer are gone. Also, when you weed in the fall it will help prevent rapid weed growth when the springtime rolls around.

What Weeds Should You Remove in Fall?

During this time of the year, herbaceous perennial weeds (like common dandelions, clover, and thistles) as well as broadleaf weeds are going to be growing like wildfire in your garden and lawn. It’s important to get these out in particular, as they can be stubborn.

Now, when it comes to how exactly to weed them, you can pull them out yourself or use some helpful tools to do the work for you.

• You can certainly hand-pull the pesky weeds on your own.
• Try using a hoe, hand weeder, or cutter to collect more weeds than one.
• You can also use a large rake and gently rake the weeds out all at once.

Hand-Pulling vs. Weed Killers: What Should You Use?

If you want to use chemicals to weed, you can use glyphosate (a well-known herbicide) to kill any emerging weeds from your garden. Just make sure to keep this specific spray off of vegetables, as it may harm or keep them from further growth.

Other Garden Tasks for Fall

The fall is a fantastic time to do more general cleaning up for your garden and lawn. Removing a lot of debris, leaves, old dead plants, and of course pesky weeds, will help your garden flourish in the spring.

While it may seem like a lot of work to do right now, it will help your plants and flowers in the long run. Trust us, you won’t mind all that hard work after seeing it all be paid off when your plants and veggies are thriving come springtime.

Neglecting your garden and lawn during this time may result in an unruly weed-infested garden come spring, so it’s really important to do your best with weeding this time of the year. Targeting your weeds now and getting them under control will reduce the chance of the weeds reseeding before winter comes.