Bearing this in mind, gardening journalist and blogger Graham Rice listed three plants that will naturally "smother" weeds before they become an issue on the Richard Jackson Garden website.

There’s one garden task you can never escape: weeding. “Every garden has weeds,” said Sharon Yiesla, plant knowledge specialist in the plant clinic at The Morton Arboretum in Lisle.

They also bring May dandelions, and crabgrass, and weeds. Weeds are just part of having a yard. They’re part of having a garden. Heck, they’re part of having a sidewalk, driveway, or parking lot.