Weeds-Easy Control

When reluctant or non-gardeners talk about gardening , they usually groan about the weeding. I don't particularly like weeding much either which is why I don't do much of it! And yet I still have quite a lot of garden space : veggies, annuals and perennials.
I grow my vegetables in containers and raised beds. It's much easier to control the soil and fewer weed seeds make their way into a raised bed. I do get some weeds in my big pots but it's so much easier to  pull them out when they are up at a convenient height. Of course if you want a big garden, container gardening probably isn't practical but it is surprising how much produce you can get from a small space.

This raised bed has newspaper covering plantings of carrots and peas.  The newspaper has a dual purpose at this point. It is keeping the soil moist and keeping light away from weeds.  Once the peas and carrots sprout, I will put strips of newspaper 5 to 6 layers thick between the rows and cover it with  some dirt so it looks better.

Here I have used an opened-up cardboard box to mulch near a tomato plant. The hose water uncovered some of it but I can quickly shovel a bit of dirt over it again. You can use lots of things as mulch. It just has to keep out the light. Old clothes, old reusable shopping bags, even opaque plastic if you punch a few holes in it are all possibilities.
I also don't stress if I have some weeds in the vegetable garden. Unless they are really out of control, the vegetables still grow just fine.

A lot of people use bark mulch in their perennial beds. I personally don't find it friendly for my kind of gardening which involves frequently moving plants. I find the bark is hard to push aside and turns the soil into a messy mix of dirt and bark. Plus it costs money. In this free form garden, I simply plant vigorous plants that come up early in the spring and beat the weeds to it. Here I have hostas, brunnera, bee balm, wild ginger and pulmonaria. In a month, it will be a solid mass of green that will shade out most weeds.

I had a weedy patch next to my foamflowers so for a couple of years I just made a leaf pile on it in the fall. The weeds have been smothered and I can plant something there if I want to. Right now, I don't really mind the dried leaves.

Another idea is to cover the ground with pots. This is a new planting area. Instead of just filling it with soil, I will keep it covered in pots for a couple of years which will kill any weeds. Then I can dump the soil out of the pots onto the ground. Meanwhile, I have some peas and lettuce growing in the pots. Eventually it will be planted with perennials.

 I like to use perennials that make a good sturdy clump that's impenetrable to weeds:
sedum,

phlox,

 daylilies. Other good ones are hostas, rudbeckia, coneflower, perennial cornflower, ornamental onion.

Here is a messy little patch that has been planted with nasturtiums and rudbeckia. In a couple of weeks, I'll know where the nasturtiums have sprouted and the rudbeckia will be bigger. I'll mulch around the plants with newspaper covered in dirt and I'll be set for the summer.
I hope some of these tips help you to enjoy your garden more. And remember , it's a garden, not a living room. A few weeds are not the end of the world.