If there’s one thing that consistently tops every gardener’s list of complaints, it’s the relentless struggle against weeds – a seemingly never-ending task, the chores of the outdoors. And while it can be tempting to go in, guns blazing, with a chemical weedkiller that gets the job done fast, there are significant disadvantages to using chemicals in your garden.
One of the biggest cons is the harm that weed-killing chemicals do to bees. For many years, chemical weedkillers were thought to be generally unharmful to wildlife, including bees.
This was because they were designed to kill plant life rather than animals, and there was no evidence that they directly harmed individual bees that foraged in areas where they were used.
However, more recent research has found that the main ingredient in weedkillers, a substance called glyphosate, has far more negative effects on wildlife, particularly bees, than previously thought.
How do chemicals harm bees?
A bee that collects nectar or pollen from plants that have been treated with or contaminated by glyphosate might not drop dead immediately upon ingestion. But there’s much more insidious harm caused.
Glyphosate has been found to disrupt the natural gut microbiome of the bee, making it far more susceptible to the pathogens and parasites – some of the biggest threats facing our declining bee populations.
Bees also lay eggs in beeswax cells within the honeycomb, and glyphosate has been shown to contaminate beeswax. This contamination affects larval development and ultimately the growth, weight, and overall reproductive success of bees. Glyphosate even affects bees’ ability to regulate the temperature inside their hives, which is key not only to the reproductive success, but also to the very survival of a colony.
Other chemicals used in weed-killing formulas aside from glyphosate are also thought to have similar, potentially disastrous effects on the health of one of our most important species.
As pollinators, bees play an essential role in the propagation and health of our entire ecosystem (including a huge proportion of our food sources), and they need protection now more than ever. One way we can play our part to help protect them is by weeding out our own more harmful chemical weed killing practices, and choosing a more bee-friendly approach to keeping our gardens.
So, what are some of the ways we can manage weeds without harming bees? We’ve put together a list of the nine best bee-friendly and chemical-free weed solutions you can adopt to help our little buzzing friends thrive, go forth, and pollinate.
1. Know your weeds
Before you take to your knees, trowel in hand, the most important thing you can do is get to know which weeds you’re dealing with. Making sure you understand how they reproduce, what their purpose is, and how to manage them is half the battle.
For example, strimming and cutting back many types of weeds will weaken them. But, in some cases, like with Japanese knotweed, doing so can stimulate their roots and accelerate their reproduction. You likely have both annual and perennial weeds in your garden, too, which behave and root differently, and will respond differently to treatments.
So, before you start any type of management for the weeds in your garden, first find out what they are. The Royal Horticultural Society has put together a great guide to the most common weeds in the UK and how to handle them. In the never-ending war on weeds, make knowledge your greatest weapon!
2. Good old-fashioned hand-pulling
Yes, it’s weed management the difficult way. Probably one of the most effective tools we have at our disposal is our very own elbow grease, and the great news is that it’s completely harmless to bees.
There are several ways to approach weed management by hand, their efficacy depending on the weeds you’re tackling and the time of year you employ them. In spring and early summer, you can hoe weed seedlings to kill them off – choose to do it on a dry and sunny day to make sure any exposed roots dry and die quickly.
The important thing here is to get the roots up – weeds are resilient and stubborn, and roots left in the soil will waste no time in popping back up. Annual weeds tend to have shorter roots that you can pull right out by hand. But more established perennial weeds will need a little more intervention, in the shape of a spade, fork or trowel.
3. Homemade vinegar spray
Good old vinegar is a powerful ally in your weed management. Its acidity is kryptonite for weeds, and while you can get special horticultural vinegars that contain a higher level of acetic acid than household vinegar, you can still use the vinegar in your cupboard for less established weeds.
Simply mix it with a small dash of dish soap – this helps to break down the outer, protective coat on the weed’s leaves – and spray on the plants you want to get rid of. Spray directly onto the leaves and stalks, and for best results, do it on a sunny day. It works well, and fast, and leaves nothing nasty behind that can harm bees.
The only caveat is that you must spray carefully – it’s a non-selective weed solution and will kill whatever you spray it on, from ragwort to your beloved rose bushes.
4. Smother your weeds with mulch
Mulching is a great gardener’s go-to for anyone who wants to keep weeds at bay and bees happy. By covering your soil with organic materials like wood chips, straw, grass clippings, or even well-rotted manure, you’ll block sunlight from getting to weeds, stopping them before they start.
It’s a completely chemical-free weed solution that will have no ill effect on bees, and it’s a great way to repurpose garden waste.
Your mulch layer needs to be thick enough to be effective, so be sure to make it at least 10-20cm deep, and you’ll need to top it up each spring. RHS have a good guide to mulching that you can use to help you get it right. You can also use a biodegradable mulching sheet/film for the same purpose.
5. Put the kettle on
Boiling water is the perfect weed solution for your paths and driveways, or any tricky area where hoes, spades, and trowels may not be an option. The high temperatures aren’t survivable for plants, and one dousing should kill off most weeds with shallower roots.
Perennials or other weeds with deeper root systems might need a different approach, as the boiling water will have cooled enough by the time it hits their roots to be survivable.
For best results, do this in cooler weather to create an even greater ‘shock’ to the plant, and be very careful not to pour it onto any plants you don’t want to kill. Make sure your water is right off the boil, as hot as it can possibly be, and be prepared for a second or even third pour on some of the peskier weeds you might encounter.
6. Try companion planting
Companion planting is the practice of consciously pairing plants with each other to create symbiotic relationships that help them thrive together. While it’s most commonly employed as a pest-control method, it also helps to keep weeds at bay.
You can fortify your flower beds by planting perennial groundcovers. Choose those that are hardy, low-maintenance, provide dense coverage – leaving little space for weeds to take hold – and bloom with beautiful, bee-feeding flowers every year, too.
We’ve created a guide to some of the best ground cover plants to help you pick the right one for your garden. If you’re hoping to battle weeds in your vegetable garden, plant herbs like mint and basil, which will do the same job as groundcover plants in your flower bed – but with more flavour!
7. Repeated cutting
It takes a little persistence and patience, but repeatedly cutting or pulling weeds’ growth back is an effective way to disrupt their photosynthesis, send them into shock, and use up all of their energy stores, which weakens them over time.
If you’re consistent and persistent with this, you can put even the most stubborn perennial weeds on the back foot and cause them to give up, unable to survive in a state of constant ‘injury’.
This method is great for weeds with rhizomes (root stalks) and other deep roots, which are difficult to remove by hand completely. Simply pull any stalks or leaves that appear during the growing season, as soon as you see them. If you need a little more help than your own two hands, use a strimmer or even a lawn mower to keep larger areas of overgrowth cut right down to ground level.
8. Give your winter beds a blanket
A cardboard one, to be precise. When your flower and vegetable beds are dormant over winter, they become a prime target for wayward weed seeds to take hold and grow. Placing a blanket of cardboard over the beds will perform the same function as mulch, blocking out sunlight and preventing the seeds from taking hold.
Ensure you use undyed cardboard with any sellotape removed (if using a deconstructed box), and keep an eye on the cardboard as it degrades, pulling any weeds that manage to sprout.
9. Consider your mindset
It’s something we so rarely do, but it’s well worth thinking about who gets to decide what plants are ‘good’ or ‘bad’, and how perfect we need our gardens to be. One of the most environmentally friendly and freeing acts we can undertake in our gardens is to relax a little and learn to tolerate some weed growth.
Those that are native and not invasive are likely meant to be here, and play an essential role in the grand scheme of our ecosystem that we may not even fully understand.
Dandelions are a great example of this. Once derided as an eyesore that spoils a beautiful lawn, the truth is that dandelions are rich in nectar and pollen, and provide a crucial food source for foraging bees to bring back to their hungry hives in spring.
So while we all have our limits and we appreciate a nice, neat flower bed, try to make some space for the plants that have been deemed undesirable to humans. They may not be so repellent to other species.
Final thoughts…
A war on weeds doesn’t need to be a battle on bees, either. We can manage the growth and spread of weeds without impacting our buzzy, bumbling friends. And while weeding can seem like an interminable and thankless task, the simple truth is that the slower and more laborious weed solutions we have are far better for our gardens, for us, and for bees.
So why not grab your gardening gear, pop on some headphones, and tackle your less desirable garden growth with a great podcast or audiobook, and a whole new bee-friendly approach to weed control?
Have you tried a bee-friendly approach to weed control in your garden? Or do you know a trick we haven’t listed here? Let us know in the comments below! We always welcome your input.
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