Natural Weed Control: Permaculture Secrets for Your Cannabis Garden

Natural Weed Control in Cannabis Gardens….Controlling Competition

One of the most ironic parts of growing “weed” is having to fight off the actual weeds.

In my permaculture food forest at Stony Oasis Farms, I don’t use toxic sprays or spend ten hours a day on my knees pulling grass. I use natural weed control—a system where the garden works for me, not the other way around.

My definition of a weed…Generally a very healthy, vigorous plant, that is simply growing in the wrong place.

Cannabis does have a very serious advantage right away…cannabis can grow taller then most weeds you will find. When growing guerrilla I use to weed right around my plants until they began to out-grow the weeds, which meant the weeds stood no chance.

Another way to give cannabis an advantage over the surrounding weeds is to push the cannabis plant with fertilizer…give it a ‘leg up’ over any competing weeds.

The Power of Companion Planting If you leave the soil bare, nature will fill it with something. Usually, it’s something you don’t want. By using companion planting, you “out-compete” the unwanted weeds. I like to use white clover as a “living mulch.” It stays low to the ground, smothers out the weeds, and—here’s the kicker—it’s a nitrogen fixer. It literally pulls food out of the air and puts it into the soil for your cannabis plants to eat. I have just bought some white clover I will be planting next to the plants in the hugelkultur pictured above.

Mulching and Hugelkultur In my 15-strain garden, I use a lot of dryland hugelkultur. By burying rotting logs and covering the soil with a thick layer of organic straw or wood chips, you create a barrier that weeds can’t penetrate. This also holds in moisture, which is vital in the high desert of central Washington. I will be getting a tractor and a PTO driven chipped at some point, which will be a game changer for Stony Oasis.

The “Guerrilla” Philosophy Natural weed control isn’t just about making the garden look pretty; it’s about vigor. When your cannabis doesn’t have to compete with aggressive grasses for nutrients and water, it grows bigger and stronger. A healthy, vigorous plant is its own best defense. If you fill your garden with beneficial plants like marigolds (to keep away pests) and clover (to stop weeds), you create a self-sustaining ecosystem that allows you more time to enjoy the “hunt” and less time weeding.