Re: winter weeding

At 04:53 PM 1/18/97 -0500, Celia wrote:
>Should I be weeding my iris beds this winter? I kept them neat all summer,
>but since November my windward bed has collected gobs of shallow-rooted
>tiny-leaved clovery-looking things, some of which have snuggled up next to
>the rhizomes. I can scrape these weeds off with a hand hoe, but dirt comes
>up, too.

I'm a novice at irises as well, but I would recommend weeding by hand now
while the job is still manageable. Come springtime these weeds will
probably burst into increased growth or bloom. 

During my summers as a teenager I helped out my father, a professional
gardener (by professional, I mean he makes a very good living cleaning and
landscaping wealthy individual's gardens).  My father rarely allowed me to
use a hoe when weeding the customer's flower beds, but insisted that I pull
the weeds by hand so that I would be sure to get to the "root of the
matter".  I'm sure that this was because he didn't want me hacking away at
the shrubbery roots, disturbing the mulch, or worse yet, having to go back
and weed a week later.  I never go out to my flower beds now without
pulling a handful of weeds.

>Every time the sun peeks out I'm tempted to rush out and weed, but then I
>worry that weeding will disturb the roots and disturbing the roots will
>lead to new repair growth and that new growth will be clobbered when the
>cold clamps back down - which it always does, usually within two or three
>days. 

If the weeds are as shallow as you say, it shouldn't hurt to pull them out
by hand and shake the clinging dirt back over the bed.  Unless the weeds
have deep roots which you think might be severely entangled with your
irises' roots, I wouldn't worry much about root damage on the irises.
Others on the list, please correct me if I'm wrong.  I say go for it and
kill those small weeds before they become bigger.

-Donald


Donald Mosser
AIS, HIPS, SIGNA, SSI, SLI, SPCNI, and IRIS-L
dmosser@southconn.com
http://www.geocities.com/rainforest/5570

North Augusta, South Carolina, USA
On the South Carolina and Georgia Border
USDA Zone 7b-8
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