Weeds are the scourges of most gardens. A week or so ago I attended a garden symposium sponsored by the Master Gardeners of Lancaster County. One of the speakers talked about weeds and I will try to share some of his thoughts.

To fight weeds you must know the enemy. Are they annual? Are they perennial? What time of the season do they present their ugly faces? We'll define a weed as a plant that grows where we don't want it.

Annual weeds are the easy ones. Shallow cultivation is the best cure here. Spring growth of summer weeds starts as the forsythia starts to drop their yellow petals. Right now we see annual winter weeds like chickweed and shepherd's purse.

Pick a tool (hoe) that will just scratch the surface at one half inch or less. The reason for the parenthesis is that a light narrow hoe works well, but they also make tools specifically for this task. Since cultivation will bring weed seeds to the surface and give them the opportunity to germinate; the less dirt we move, the better.

If you are working on the current crop of winter annuals, they should be removed from the garden as they re-root quite readily in cool, moist conditions. Summer weeds generally will wilt and perish after a light scratching. One summer exception in my garden is purslane, which is a thick stemmed, reddish, rubbery, crawling varmint.

Research has shown that weed seeds can lay dormant in the soil for at least sixty years waiting for light. It has also been shown that the red band of light, which is most intense during the middle of the day, is the germination trigger for weeds.

Thus I offer the following good advice. Weed early in the morning or late in the afternoon. In the heat of the day, relax in the shade and share your newfound wisdom. I hope it works for me.

Perennial weeds are more difficult, and are often a long, continuous problem. Since they can live for years, they have food storage facilities in their roots. Mom tells about hoeing thistles in the 1930ies and winning the battle. You can wear out perennial weeds, but it is tough. They are weakest in late summer as growth and seed production ends.

The best thought on perennial weeds is to eliminate them before you plant the garden in the beginning. Frequent clean cultivation, suffocation and resorting to herbicides are possible answers. A thin layer of mulch is also helpful after the big battles are won.

General widespread use of chemicals is probably a bad idea. Use them to target only tough specific problems. He even condemned the use of weed and feed fertilizers on the yard. His claim is that if we maintain the proper ph (6.5), keep proper nutrition and mow high leaving the clippings fall we can grow a superior lawn without weed control.

For those specific problem weeds he offered a few unique application ideas. He used a long necked oilcan with herbicide to target a specific weed among desirable plants. There is also a weed wick on the market, which just touches the weed with something like Roundup.

I quit by reminding you that each of us leaves a legacy in our gardens. Every time we let a weed spread seeds it could be next year's menace or it could wait for our grandchildren.