How to Keep Weeds out of Strawberries

Use a sharp hoe to cultivate the soil a few days after you plant your strawberries. Cultivating means moving moist soil so weeds will not grow. Continue to cultivate the soil as your strawberries grow, recommends the University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension.

Put on your garden gloves and hand-pull weeds around your strawberry plants. Hoe around the strawberries to remove weeds between your plants. Use a sharp hoe to cut off the weeds just under the soil's surface.

Create an organic mulch or compost for the summer to help control weeds around your strawberries. Mulches work effectively by preventing the sun from getting to the soil's surface, and weeds need sunlight to germinate. Mulches also keep your strawberries clean and hold moisture in the soil. Make an organic mulch out of sawdust, newspapers, bark, straw, grass clippings or vegetable scraps. Spread the mulch 3 inches deep in the aisles between strawberry plant rows.

Make a synthetic mulch as a way to control weed growth. At the time you plant your strawberries and water them, lay black plastic over your plants, cutting small cross-like slits over each strawberry plant, using the knife. Lightly spread straw mulch over the black plastic to help prevent the plastic from overheating the soil underneath. Eventually, the strawberry plants will be large enough to cover almost all of the plastic, creating a canopy or shade with their leaves. Like the plastic, the plant shade prevents sunlight from reaching the soil, preventing weeds from germinating and growing.