Now that the garden is planted and growing well, it’s time to notice that the vegetables aren’t the only plants thriving in that plot.  It’s quite likely that there are at least a few weeds popping up here and there.  Now it is time to talk about the menace these invaders are, and why they are so detrimental to your garden.

Sometimes it is easy to think that a few weeds aren’t going to make a lot of difference in the growth of the plants, but I have found the opposite to be true.  Just last summer we planted two rows of carrots.  They were still small when we went on a two-week vacation.  When we returned, those poor carrots were desperately vying for sunlight against the taller invaders.  As I found time, I would gradually weed my way through the rows, and it was interesting to see what happened.  As I did so, the carrots that were released from their entanglements seemed to grow two inches almost overnight.  The others stayed puny.  Within a few days, the row had several different heights surging upward.  It was almost as if they had been anxious to grow, but were halted in their progress.

This is really true for any plant, even trees.  Although trees are much taller than the grass surrounding them, the trees grow much faster if that grass is removed for 2-4 feet all around the trunk.  Why is this so?  It is all about competition.