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To rid your garden of weeds so you can plant your ground covers, you will have to hoe out the shallow-rooted weeds. (Shallow-rooted weeds are generally annuals.) You may have to dig out deep-rooted perennial weeds with a shovel.
Once you have cleared out the weeds, you should rake the surface free of small rocks or other debris. If the site was very weedy, you should wait a week to ten days before planting your ground covers. This will give any weed seeds that are in the soil time germinate, so you can eliminate them.