Dealing with Chickweed in Your Spring Vegetable Garden

When you head out to plant your spring peas and find the bed completely blanketed in chickweed, don't panic. This common cool-season weed is easy to manage if you act quickly. Start by pulling as much of the green chickweed as you can, roots and all. Once the peas are sown and emerge, lay down several layers of newspaper around the seedlings. The paper blocks light, suppressing any remaining weed seeds and seedlings. As a bonus, the newspaper breaks down over the season and can be tilled right into the soil after you harvest the peas, adding organic matter for the next crop.