Eliminate ALL Garden Weeds FOREVER, Cheap and Easy!

In this video, I show you how to eliminate all garden weeds forever by installing weed barrier (sometimes called landscape fabric)! Weeding a garden is no fun, and this cheap and easy method of preventing weeds in your garden and landscaping has saved me hundreds of hours of pulling weeds by stopping weeds from germinating in the first place.

These gardening products* can prevent weeds from growing in your yard and garden:
Dewitt Weed Barrier [3.2oz, premium brand]: https://amzn.to/4fnsxuO
DeWitt Max Weed Barrier [4.1oz, premium brand]: https://amzn.to/3Hguf4t
Heavy Duty Weed Barrier [3.7oz] (Many Sizes): https://amzn.to/4mj7nkl
Extra Heavy Duty Weed Barrier [5.8oz] (Many Sizes): https://amzn.to/4lcmxX1
Landscape Staples With Gaskets: https://amzn.to/4l8VZ8Q
Rubber Mallet: https://amzn.to/3JesMfs
Utility Knife: https://amzn.to/4miOmh6
Razor Blades: https://amzn.to/45mxoYt
Garden Rake: https://amzn.to/3UGLoHx
Manual Lawn Edger: https://amzn.to/3Ue6nBr
Gardening Gloves: https://amzn.to/47es8Zs
Small Dump Cart: https://amzn.to/45zaDBO
75% Vinegar Concentrate (For Weed Killer): https://amzn.to/45dSrMM
Grow Bags (Black): https://amzn.to/4a0MHa5
Grow Bags (Tan): https://amzn.to/4dqSsAD
Heavy Duty Nursery Pots: https://amzn.to/4jhLpM8
Plant Saucers: https://amzn.to/4nvzUnu
Pruning Snips: https://amzn.to/4eZxCrM
Full Amazon Store: https://www.amazon.com/shop/themillennialgardener

TABLE OF CONTENTS
0:00 Introduction
1:06 Why Garden Weeds Are So Harmful
2:28 Weed Prevention Using Weed Barrier
5:30 Preparing The Area For Weed Removal
6:47 Weed Barrier Installation Tools
8:15 How To Install Weed Barrier
13:13 Using Weed Barrier Long-term
14:25 Microplastics In Your Garden
21:17 Final Thoughts And Conclusion
22:16 Adventures With Dale

If you have any questions about installing weed barrier for a weed free garden and yard, want to learn more about growing fruit trees or the things I grow in my raised bed vegetable garden and edible landscaping food forest, are looking for more gardening tips and tricks and garden hacks, have questions about vegetable gardening and organic gardening in general, or want to share some DIY and “how to” garden tips and gardening hacks of your own, please ask in the Comments below!

*******
VISIT MY AMAZON STOREFRONT FOR PRODUCTS I USE MOST OFTEN IN MY GARDEN*
https://www.amazon.com/shop/themillennialgardener

*******
VISIT MY MERCHANDISE STORE
https://shop.spreadshirt.com/themillennialgardener

*******
SUPPORT MY SECOND CHANNEL!
https://www.youtube.com/c/2MinuteGardenTips

*******
SOCIAL MEDIA
Follow Me on X (@NCGardening) https://x.com/NCGardening
Follow Me on INSTAGRAM https://www.instagram.com/millennialgardener/

*******
ABOUT MY GARDEN
Location: Southeastern NC, Brunswick County (Wilmington area)
34.1°N Latitude
Zone 8B

*******
*As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
© The Millennial Gardener

#gardening #garden #weeding #vegetablegardening #vegetablegarden

I just love weeding my garden. Said no one ever. Okay, so no one really likes weeding their garden, but if you want to have one, it’s just something we have to do, right? There’s got to be a better way. Well, there is. And on today’s video, I’m going to show you how to keep your garden weedfree forever. Well, at least as close to weed-free as possible. And the best part is it’s cheap and easy to do, and it requires no sprays and no chemicals. If you’re new to the channel, please subscribe, hit the bell for notifications, and check out my Amazon store and Spreadshop links in the video description for everything I use in my garden and awesome custom apparel and gear. Pulling weeds is probably my least favorite garden chore because it feels like it’s all for nothing. It’s a lot of bending. It’s a lot of sweating. It’s tough work and we really get nothing out of it. I mean, at least when we have to do tasks like fertilize our garden or prune our fruit trees, we see results because of our hard work. Whereas pulling weeds is like chasing our tail, running in circles for nothing. So, I’ve done everything I can to minimize the weed pressure in my yard and garden. Because if you don’t keep up with weeding, terrible things can happen. Weeds are not only an eyes sore in your garden, but they can cause all sorts of problems. That’s because the weeds that you get in your climate, are going to be native to your area and well adapted to the conditions that your fruit trees in your garden, which have non-native species often aren’t. So, they can quickly take over a garden bed and choke out what you have growing in your garden rows. They can grow underneath your fruit trees, and they can rob them of nutrients and stunt their growth. Even worse, tall patches of weeds like this tend to be breeding grounds for insects because they are sheltered and protected. So, if you have a problem with insect pests in your yard and garden, tall patches of weeds like this are exacerbating the problem. And unfortunately for most of us, it is only a matter of time until we lose the battle to weed pressure. We may be able to stay on top of them early in the spring when they are growing slowly in the cooler temperatures and it’s easier for us to get out in cool weather and pull them, but once it starts getting really hot in summer and we don’t want to be outside doing backbreaking work anymore and the weeds are growing like crazy, well, a lot of times they can outpace how quickly we can manage them and then all sorts of problems pop up. That is why the best way to manage weeds is to prevent them in the first place because we’ll never be able to keep up with them. But luckily, preventing weeds permanently is very easy. In fact, this area that I’m standing in right here is my container garden area. And in the 8 years that I’ve owned my home, I have never weeded it once. That’s because when I originally had this house built, this whole area right here was a clearcut field. So pretty much from day one, I put weed barrier down in this area and that suffocated effectively any small weeds that were starting to germinate and it prevented the growth of any weeds from germinating in the entire 8 years I’ve been here. Basically keeping a completely weed-free container garden. You see, the way that weed seeds generally spread is they blow around in the air. They are very light and they scatter all about the soil line. So over time, the weed seed bank builds up on top of your soil and you will get ample germination given enough time, rainfall, and warm temperatures. But if you put down a weed barrier on the ground, that will prevent any weed seeds blowing around in the air from lying on top of the soil and germinating. And as a bonus, it will suffocate any existing weeds, provided that the root systems aren’t so advanced, they can actually grow through the weed barrier. So, it’s great to both suffocate existing weeds and prevent germination of any weed seeds that may already be on the soil line, and it will prevent future weed seeds from germinating in your soil. So, a good quality weed barrier like the one I have down around my container garden area can keep your area virtually weed-free for about 10 years. I’m 8 years into this weed barrier. It’s still showing pretty good life, and I should be able to stretch it for a few more years. And this has been one of the smartest things that I have done because this whole massive area has basically been no maintenance for me. But here’s the problem. Last winter, I started rebuilding my garden and rehabilitating it. And when I did that, I had to rip up some of my existing weed barrier right here. And I’ve been so busy, I haven’t really been able to maintain this area that has been stripped of that protective layer. And now that I’ve fallen behind, I’m starting to pay the price. So, I have had to spend way too much time pooling weeds in here because they have been germinating way too easily in my sandy soil. While I was able to pull some of the weeds in the front in advance of this video, the back half is getting out of control. I have all kinds of weed seed germination. And the further back you get here, well, the more neglected it has been. I have just not been able to keep up with all of this weeding. And remember, this area used to be 100% weed-free. Now, I have to deal with all of this mess. So, what I’m going to show you how to do in this video is fix this. I’m going to get rid of these weeds, and I’m going to show you how to install this inexpensive weed barrier in a manner that will keep you virtually weed-free for a decade or more. Now, before you put down weed barrier, you don’t necessarily have to pull every single individual weed. For example, these small weeds right here, well, they are going to be easily suffocated when I pull the weed barrier on top of them and staple it down to the ground. But weeds like this that are growing intensely or growing in the cracks and crevices, they are all going to have to be manually pulled. So, I’m going to grab myself a rake, a pair of gloves, and my hand cart, and I’m going to just suck it up and pull as many of these weeds as I possibly can. All the while telling myself, “Hey, you have nobody to blame but yourself for letting it get this bad. But it’s not that big of a deal because I’m only going to have to do this once. After I get this weed barrier done, this weed pooling is going to be a thing of the past. And I just finished weeding this entire area. All of the weeds in the cracks and crevices have been pulled. And I have rad and leveled this entire area as well. I made sure to edge all of the edges so I will have a clean line to put my weed barrier. Here’s another shot looking down so you can see how weed-free everything is. And then this is the other far end. I just edged that to have a nice clean grass line. And you can see the tremendous number of weeds that I pulled. Now I’m going to show you the different items that you need in order to make this a reality. And I will place direct links to everything down in the video description for your convenience if you need a helpful hand trying to locate the items. The first thing is a roll of heavyduty extra thick weed barrier. And these come in all different sizes. You can get them as small as 3 ft or less. They can get as large as 6 to 8 ft. So depending on the width of what you’re going to cover, it’s a lot easier to get wider rolls of weed barrier. Then I am going to use these garden staples. And unfortunately I’m running a little low on them. So I don’t have enough to finish the job today. But I’ll show you what they look like. My favorite type of garden staples are PVC coated garden staples that are also galvanized. They tend to last the longest. Then you want to get gaskets. And the garden staples, they thread down into the gasket like this. So, they will press down on the edges of that weed barrier and hold it into place. Make sure you spend the extra money on the gaskets. They’re very affordable. They will hold the weed barrier in place. If you cheap out and only install the staples after you get a heavy wind, they can rip the staples out or even tear the weed barrier. And last but not least, we want to use a cheap rubber mallet to tap the staples down into the gaskets and hold everything in place. Now, I will show you how to install the weed barrier. Now, it’s very important that when you put this first row of weed barrier down, you do it as precisely as possible because all of your subsequent rows are going to try and align with this piece of weed barrier. And I also want the weed barrier to come up and over my fence a little bit to prevent any weed formation forming in that crack because I want to be able to deprive any seeds that may germinate of sunlight. So, you have to be generous when laying out this very first piece. I’m not going to secure it right away because I’m going to overinstall it and adjust it later so I can get everything lined up perfectly. So, I am going to use this watering can as a paper weight of sorts. And then I’m just going to roll out this piece of weed barrier. And I’m just going to keep kicking it. So, now I have the weed barrier rolled out. And I’m going to roll it about 1 ft past where I want it to be in the grass because I want it to be a little bit long so I can adjust it later. This end is the one I want to cut flush. And the easiest tool that you want to use is actually a utility knife. This is going to make your life so much easier. So this is a brand new blade and that is going to cut across the weed barrier like butter. So, I just took the weed barrier so it overlaps on top of this fence a little bit. Now, I’m going to take one of my gaskets at the very end. I’m going to put one of the landscaping staples here and gently tap it down. And that is going to secure the weed barrier. I’m going to put one in the center, one on the far end that I have already lined up exactly where I want it to be. And I am not going to put one over here because when I run the second row of weed barrier, this is going to overlap. So, what I’m going to do is I’m going to take these gaskets and I’m going to install one every four to 6 ft in order to secure this weed barrier down. So, it’s the next day because we ran out of daylight, but I was able to get the weed barrier secured. And here you can see what it looks like. We have our gaskets placed all the way to the left and the center, but we left the right unsecured so we can install another row of weed barrier. And you can see how I installed the weed barrier. So, it kind of cups up along the fence. That way I can shade out that little gap where some weed germination could in theory grow. It’s still a little bit wider than I want it to be, but I’m going to have to keep an eye on that little gap there and monitor it. And you can roughly see the spacing of the two gaskets. They’re spaced, like I said, about 4 to 6 ft apart over the course of the whole weed barrier. Now, let’s install the second row. So now we are going to install our second row of weed barrier. And it is very important that we overlap the rows by at least 4 to 6 in. We want to make sure that when we put the landscaping staple down here that it firmly presses down on the row underneath it. And it’s very important that you don’t be cheap with this. Don’t overlap it by an inch or two because then the landscape staple isn’t going to grab. you’re eventually going to get a very windy day and everything is going to get torn up. Learn from some of my past mistakes and don’t be cheap with it. You really want to have that four to 6 in of overlap. So now we are going to simply roll out the second row of weed barrier and we can use the lines in that weed barrier to our advantage to make sure that we’re laying everything out nice and straight. So this looks like it’s something like I don’t know 3 to 4 in off that line. You need to make sure the edge maintains a consistent distance off of that line the whole time. And here is what it looks like after we ran our second row. And you will see how I applied that landscape staple right there. It is overlapping the first row underneath the second row. And I applied the landscape staples at the same locations. Now, unfortunately, I ran out of landscape staples. I had to order another box. So, I was only able to place one in the middle basically every other staple set, but that will be good enough for my purposes. And when they come in the mail, I’ll finish nailing down the rest of this weed barrier. And the last thing we’re going to do is cut the far end of this weed barrier. So now all the weed barrier has been placed in this aisle. It’s stapled down so it is secure. And overall I think things look pretty good. Now my long-term plans for this area is I’m going to take these potted fig trees that you see right here. Once it cools down and they no longer need daily irrigation that they are currently connected with, I’m going to pick them up and relocate them under this overhang. And then I’m going to swap out the shade cloth above with some greenhouse plastic because fig fruits don’t like getting wet. When they get wet, they explode. They burst. They get moldy. Sour flies attack them. Really nasty stuff. So, they need to be kept dry. So, this whole area that I just put down this weed barrier is going to be so my fig trees can exist in a dry, completely weed-free environment. And once I move all of those potted trees over, I will probably replace all of this weed barrier in this container garden area because it is nearly a decade old and it’s pretty much due for a change out. And when I do that, I will make sure that I buy the 6T wide weed barrier because it is a lot easier to install 6 ft strips, at least over a wide area like this. So, I am so excited that I’m not going to have to pull any weeds in this area anymore. But what about the naysayers that are going to say things like, “I’m not putting the weed barrier anywhere near my garden because of microlastics,” which is one of the hottest, most fearinducing buzzwords of today. Some recent studies are getting lots of media coverage because they claim that they have detected microlastics, tiny amount of plastics showing up in the bloodstreams of people. Now admittedly, I’m not an expert on this subject, but ask yourself why this is happening. Is it because of the weed barrier that we are using in our vegetable gardens that we are getting most of our food from? Or did we see some type of massive generational shift in how we consume food and drink recently? I don’t know about you, but when I was growing up about 35 years ago, I remember sitting down and eating dinner as a family where almost everything that we ate we cooked at home. I also remember drinking very little things out of plastic cups or bottles. I remember packing my lunch for school. Most kids pack their lunch from school and they didn’t order a whole lot of takeout. In fact, I remember when bottled water just started catching on and people were saying, “Who in their right mind is going to drink bottled water? It’s free out of the tap.” Today, it seems like everything changed. Nobody packs their lunch anymore. They order out for lunch. Nobody cooks dinner anymore. It seems like they order everything from Door Dash. And when they do cook, it’s some kind of pre-made meal from either a meal delivery service or it’s coming out of some kind of bag, probably made out of plastic, from the grocery store, and then they wash it down with bottled drinks, either water or acidic drinks like juice and soda, which can be sitting in a plastic bottle for months. And if you think you’re doing yourself a favor by getting aluminum cans instead, well, a lot of those aluminum cans are actually lined with plastic. You can actually watch videos on YouTube where people take aluminum cans and they dissolve them in acid and what is left is just a bag of juice or soda. And how far do we want to take the no plastics approach? I mean, does that mean I can’t put irrigation in my garden anymore because all of the irrigation lines are made out of plastic? Does that also mean that garden hoses and 5gallon buckets are off limits, too? Can I even use my house faucet? I mean, all of the plumbing lines inside my house are made out of PVC pipe. And does that also mean my tap water is off limits? Come to think about it, what do I do with my entire container garden? These fig trees have been growing in these plastic pots for 7 or 8 years now. And by the way, they seem to be pretty healthy. And all of the fabric grow bags, well, they are actually made out of plastic as well. Is container gardening now completely off limits? But in all seriousness, I do actually take the concept of plastic elimination very seriously. In fact, about 12 years ago, I committed to eliminating a lot of plastic from my diet. But I’ll tell you how I did it. I did it by eliminating basically all bottled and canned beverages. I threw out all of my plastic storage containers and I converted every single thing to either glass or stainless steel for storage. And I threw out all of my old pots and pans. And now I only cook exclusively in cast iron and stainless steel. I use nothing else. Also, I haven’t probably had a soda or a fruit juice in close to 15 years. I basically only drink three things: water out of the tap that’s filtered, coffee, and I drink beer, but only in glass bottles. I will only buy them in glass because I’ve never liked the taste of canned beer, probably because many of those cans are lined with plastic. And I have also committed to cooking virtually all my own food. We probably only go out to eat once a month, maybe twice tops. Everything else we put into our bodies, we cook at home. And much of what I cook, I grow. And I feel that one of the best ways that you can control what you actually put into your body is to control the process from seed to table. And that is by growing your own food. Even buying things at grocery stores that you think are safe. There is so much trickery that goes on. Do you know what these things are? These are pickle barrels or olive barrels. So if you’re doing things like buying imported olive oil or imported olives, chances are they were shipped overseas in one of these big drums and then once they reach the United States, they’re sent to some kind of bottling place where they are then put in glass jars or glass bottles. So even if you think you’re being safe buying things in glass, chances are they at some point spent their life in a plastic container. So for me as a person that actually takes this whole plastic thing very seriously and over a decade ago tried to eliminate as much as they could from their diet. The reason why I am okay with using weed barrier in my garden is because the benefits far outweigh any potential downsides. Not having to weed this entire area saves me hundreds of man-hour that I would otherwise spend pulling weeds every single year that I can then take to grow more food because I have way more available time. Same thing with irrigation. This saves me hundreds of hours of manual watering. So, I’m able to grow and maintain a much larger garden, which I can then control more of what goes directly into my body. Because if you rely on someone else cooking your food, if you rely on someone else growing and transporting and sourcing your food, you don’t know what was done to that food before it reaches your table. But you can control the process from the ground up by growing your own food. And that’s one of the reasons why I think everybody needs to have a backyard garden. It is one of the healthiest things that you can do for your life. So my personal opinion is the whole issue with microlastics is not because of the weed barrier and the garden hoses and the drip irrigation that we are using in our backyard gardens to grow and source our own food. It’s that we don’t make anything anymore. We don’t cook our own food. We don’t grow our own food. It’s all being processed and being stored in plastic at some point before it reaches your table. So, my personal opinion is if the weed barrier were a problem, well, wouldn’t you see problems with my potted trees that are growing in plastic pots, I don’t think it’s particularly harmful for the trees. And I think that if all of us minimize the chores of gardening like the irrigation and the weed pooling, when we have more man-hour available to actually grow the food in our garden and buy less from grocery stores and order less takeout and cook more of our own food, well, I think that is really the overall key to health. It’s all about controlling your food supply and controlling how it’s made. But that’s just my opinion. Take it for what it’s worth. And that right there is how you can nearly completely eliminate weeds from your garden using weed barrier. And it’s almost permanent. This stuff should last about 10 years, maybe even longer if your climate is a little less harsh than mine. So everybody, I sure hope you found this video helpful. If you did, please make sure to hit that like button, subscribe to the channel, and please ring the notification bell so you’re notified when I release more videos like these. Again, if you’re curious about any of the products that I featured in this video, I will place direct links to the weed barrier, the landscaping staples, and the other tools that I featured down in the video description for your convenience for everything else I use in real life in my vegetable garden. They are all linked in my Amazon storefront. So, expand the video description, click on the Amazon storefront link, and you will see everything I use in my yard and garden in real life. And while you’re down there, please consider checking out my spreadshot for custom merch if you want to support my channel. Thank you all so much for watching and I hope to see all of you again on the next video. What in the heck is is this dog doing? Dale, what are you looking at? You freak me out sometimes, dude. You’re just staring at the wall like a nut. Britney, Dale is doing the thing again where he’s just looking at the wall. Is that like a ghost in here or something? I mean, I had this house built and it was just woods beforehand, so nobody owned the house before. What are you looking at? A ghost? Are you just watching TV on the empty screen right here? You know, sometimes I wonder how would humans know that things have sense if we didn’t have noses? If we weren’t born with noses, we’d have no idea that things had smell. So, what exactly is he looking at that we have no idea is there? That’s the biggest fear that goes through my mind before I go to bed. This nutcase dog right here.