Weeds will never invade your garden again if you grow 3 plants that will 'smother' them

Weeds can be difficult to remove, especially if you want to avoid using chemical weedkillers or spending hours hunched over pulling them out by hand. While some gardeners recommend using , accidentally using these items in the wrong place can sterilise the soil and kill the you want to keep. , if left to grow out of hand, can compete with other plants for sunlight, water and food, which can affect how they grow.

With this in mind, award-winning garden writer and blogger Graham Rice has shared on the three plants to grow now that will naturally "smother" weeds before they have a chance to cause problems. Pesky new weeds can be smothered by ground cover plants by not leaving enough space for weeds to grow. However, it's worth noting that these plants won't be able to squeeze out weeds that are already established.

Three plants that naturally smother weeds:

Lady's Mantle

Mr Rice said Lady's Mantle smothers weeds in two different ways while producing pretty flowers that look like "tiny stars".

Lady's Mantle has large, rounded leaves that spread, making them perfect for smothering weeds. It also produces masses of upright flower stems that naturally crowd out weeds.

Their beautiful yellow-green flowers can also be cut and put in vases to brighten up your kitchen or dining room.

The plant grows to 30-50cm and can be positioned in full shade, full sun and partial shade, making it perfect for most gardens.

Bugle

If you have a shady area of your garden that's prone to weeds, bugle is the perfect plant for you.

According to Mr Rice: "Bugle keeps out weeds by steadily creeping over the surface of the soil, putting down roots as it goes, and all the leaves knit together to leave not a millimetre of soil into which a weed can wheedle."

The plant is only a few centimetres in height but, thanks to its leaves and flowers, produces a beautiful array of colours.

The leaves, which tend to lie flat on the soil, come in green, bronze, pink, cream, and white and can even be a mix of shades.

In the late spring, bugle produces pretty blue flowers that are a favourite among pollinators.

Hostas

Hostas come in a range of sizes, which means you're bound to find a variety that suits your needs.

While the plant's leaves do die away in winter, the gardening expert assured that from spring to autumn the plants "overlap and overlap again" creating such a dark environment underneath that weeds "don't get a look in".

Hostas thrive in shade and in sun and come in a variety of different leaf colours and patterns. Some also produce fantastic flowers that are guaranteed to brighten up your garden.