Weeds are part of gardening and sometimes enough to make even the most hardy gardener want to pull their hair out. The best thing to do is to start early and stay ahead of the game. It doesn’t take much for the weeds to take off in spring so starting digging or pulling them out now. Weeds are easiest to remove when they are small with short roots and after a rain with the soil is moist instead of hard as a rock.
The U of M extension has a great page to help you identify the types of weeds you may have in your yard. This is especially helpful if you are trying to figure out if something is a weed you want to pull or something you might want to keep.
Once you have your area weeded, apply Preen which can prevent annual weed seeds from growing. It won’t take out weeds that are already growing though. Preen can be applied to the soil and also works great over mulch. Adding mulch around your plants will also help keep weeds down because it prevents light from getting to the soil making it harder for weeds to grow. Yes, weeds can grow in the mulch too, but they are often much easier to remove.
You can find Preen, tools for digging weeds and fun gardening gloves at Sargent’s.