Weed wisdom

Alongside pests and diseases, weeds are the enemies we gardeners love to hate. Weeds steal water and nutrients from garden plants and sometimes get so rampant they take over - so stay vigilant from the start.

The key to defeating weeds is to make it as difficult as possible for them to grow. Make it part of your gardening routine to prevent them arriving in the first place, then promptly remove any that do.

Mulching smothers the ground, preventing annual weed seeds from germinating. The range of mulching materials available in our garden centre includes chipped bark and well-rotted stable manure, which feeds the soil as it rots down.

Weekly hoeing slices off new growth just below the soil's surface before it even gets going. Choose from a selection of hoes in our garden centre, from wide-bladed Dutch hoes to smaller-bladed ones for fiddly corners.

Hoeing helps keep persistent weeds such as bindweed and ground elder at bay, but to get rid of them a glyphosate-based weedkiller, available in our garden centre, is often the only option. Spray on a calm, dry day, following packet instructions carefully.

Please ask the staff in our garden centre in Athlone for more information and advice about how to tackle the weeds in your garden.