In many areas, once you have that fall freeze, all gardening just about comes to a halt except for maybe bringing in your plants that would not survive the winter freeze. Out on the West Coast, the climate is growth 12 months out of the year, except for the deciduous varieties of plants that go dormant during the winter season. Weeds do not seem to take a break and are in growth mode all the time. As a result, this type of climate requires attention to your flowerbeds and gardens all year long, which means that tilling your flowerbeds is a regular task that must be attended to on a regular basis.
Putting aside weed mats and pre-emergent granules and weed killling herbicides, which can help to greatly reduce the prolific weed growth, tilling when weeding offers a greater benefit to the soil in your flowerbed. If you use some type of a tilling tool such as a tilling fork, a 4 tine cultivating tool, a hand cultivator or a combo hand held cultivator/hoe, digging the weed out and turning over the soil is beneficial for your flowerbed if you have a climate that offers a twelve growth cycle.
Be cautious when using your tilling tool especially if you have bulbs planted in the ground. Avoid digging them up unless you plan on removing them from your flowerbed. Just remember that as you patiently and happily till your soil, remember that you are actually adding nutrients as you dig out your weeds and gently turn the soil over. Just remember, it is a Zen kind of thing that those folks over in the frozen ground territory can’t enjoy until their ground thaws out!
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