The best defense against weeds–land covered with healthy vegetation

By Susan Fernalld

This year the invasive weeds are surging, using this year’s late moisture to colonize land where native vegetation is thin. Bare soil requires attention to prevent erosion and the rapid in-filling of weeds. The best defense against weeds of all kinds is land that is covered with healthy vegetation.

Here in the mountains where we are all on wells, any large-scale seeding, even using seeds of native plants that grow in our arid environment, is a slow process with only precipitation to get seedlings going. For several years, weeds will predominate especially in dry years, but over years the natives will become established.

Claire DeLeo, Plant Ecologist with Boulder County Parks and Open Space, provided us with a list of native grass species that are appropriate for the Gold Hill area. She first recommends Slender wheatgrass, a tall growing grass, knee height or taller, readily available from any major seed company. It comes in several varieties, and the seed companies can assist you in which variety is best for your area. It is a cool season grass, best sown in the mountains in the spring, providing cover quickly and competition for weeds.

DeLeo’s list includes other good choices for native grasses for Gold Hill: Blue grama, Nodding Brome, Fringed brome, Canada Wildrye, Rocky Mt. fescue, Junegrass, and Western wheatgrass. For those who wish to seed only short grasses for the wildfire defensible space around their homes, their choices in the list are Blue grama, Rocky Mountain fescue, and Junegrass. The seed companies may alternatively suggest Sheep fescue, which looks like Rocky Mt. fescue but is from Europe.

You might want to question the seed companies about where they collect their seed, because seed collected from the plains of Colorado might not survive as well as seed collected from higher elevations. Western Native Seed Company is known to collect from higher elevations. To see CSU Cooperative Extension’s lists of Colorado seed company sources of (not necessarily native) grass seed, click here.

Will you need to amend your soil and fertilize before seeding? Not necessarily if you are seeding with native grass seed, but yes if you are seeding non-native seed, and yes if you are seeding anything after a construction project. In the latter two cases, it would be good to get a soil test and then, if recommended, amend the soil with organic matter such as compost.

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