Topic: thankless task

[debster]

No matter how long i spend in the garden i never seem to get everything done the veg plants are all doing as they should but i cannot get on top of the weeds particularly those around the paths thank goodness i havent got a lottie. i am always playing catch up
never mind eh moan over

[Robert_Brenchley]

That's what I do on the allotment. Every year I get the perennial weeds out of a bit more, so eventually I'll (hopefully) have it all sorted.

[sarah]

i am sure we all empathise! i have had my plot coming up to three years now and have never once been on top of it. its like a big wheel that never stops to wait for you to catch up. i think the best you can hope for is to see the light at the end of tunnel even if you never reach it. weeds are just something you have to accept as part of the cycle. they will start slowing down now just like everything else. as Robert says if you keep removing perrenial weeds year by year then eventually (whenever that it) it should get easier.

[antipodes]

ah even the weeds don't live for ever! I was pleased to see on the lottie on saturday that the few tufts of grass here and there were dying, the toadwort has perished and the dandelion looks finished too. I hoed them over. The bindweed seems to be slowing down too.
I notice that the other allotmenteers around me tidy everything away, leaving just dirt around each plant. Now I don't do that, I leave the hoed stuff on the ground and just have an occasional rake up to keep it tidy, I find that this keeps the ground moist and it is ever so easy to dig on my plot. I just rake off the top layer and underneath it is nice and crumbly. The grass I cannot manage to dig it all out so I just chop it off with secateurs and now I have a nice little hay pile for mulching things like rhubarb over the winter!!!

[jennym]

..The grass I cannot manage to dig it all out so I just chop it off with secateurs and now I have a nice little hay pile for mulching things like rhubarb over the winter!!!

You don't want to do that  ;D - I didn't believe it but someone taught me that rhubarb is best left cold - it promotes more of the plant to produce stalks, so mulching would inhibit that. It works, honest!

[Debenvalley]

ah even the weeds don't live for ever!

I noticed the bindweed which covers most the plot next to mine has started to die back. It made me feel slightly less worried about the work I'll have to do when I take it over in November.

I found the wet summer weather the worst for trying to keep on top of the weeding, they just seemed to grow so fast. I've tried clear a little more each time I go but always keeping the previously cleared areas free from weeds. I think if you start at one end and work towards the other its soul destroying to turn round and see you got to go back to the start again !

[manicscousers]

try covering the bits you've done, debenvalley, if there's nothing growing in there, weeds take over quickly..green manure, weed control fabric, black plastic compost bags, carpet..they all keep them at bay  ;D