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Marestail & Bindweed under my plot's paths

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JanG:

--- Quote from: Harry on December 27, 2023, 11:10:24 ---

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I suppose I'm also asking whether free tree chippings are really worth blagging. I LOVE free, but not if it will take me decades to use the stuff. :)
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Any wood chip will be compost within a year or two so, to my mind, it’s always worth giving as much space as you can to storing woodchip. It’s difficult to see why you think it would take decades to use it. In my set-up it disappears only too quickly.

Tiny Clanger:
Hi, Carpet is banned at our site so we use slabs. Keep eye open for drives being replaced and the contents of skips. You'll be surprised what you can get.  Digging out is the only real way to get rid of pernicious weeds like mare's tail and bindweed.  We have some creeping over from a vacant plot next door.  We've sunk slabs down the edge of the plot edge deep which slows the stuff down a lot.  Hard work but worth it.  Hope you have a really great season.xx

Harry:

--- Quote from: Tiny Clanger on December 28, 2023, 11:29:42 ---Hi, Carpet is banned at our site so we use slabs. Keep eye open for drives being replaced and the contents of skips. You'll be surprised what you can get.  Digging out is the only real way to get rid of pernicious weeds like mare's tail and bindweed.  We have some creeping over from a vacant plot next door.  We've sunk slabs down the edge of the plot edge deep which slows the stuff down a lot.  Hard work but worth it.  Hope you have a really great season.xx

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Hi, Bringing carpet onto our site is also banned, but there's masses of carpet tiles already in use and tolerated.
I like the idea of slabs on edge, albeit a big job.

I think I will lift the carpet tiles and weed below them to a fork deep, then re-lay them.
As to wood chippings, I'll blag a few bulk-bags and find a use for them later.

Palustris:
We followed a mare's tail root down through sandy sub soil for a distance of over 3 metres and never did reach the bottom of it, so be warned. We also saw a root going down the side of a quarry for over 30 feet. Not the easiest thing to dig out.
Sorry, but eternal vigilance and a good hoe are the best things.

Harry:

--- Quote from: Palustris on December 29, 2023, 11:24:30 ---We followed a mare's tail root down through sandy sub soil for a distance of over 3 metres and never did reach the bottom of it, so be warned. We also saw a root going down the side of a quarry for over 30 feet. Not the easiest thing to dig out.
Sorry, but eternal vigilance and a good hoe are the best things.

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Indeedy. It is futile expecting to eliminate marestail by digging deep. There is a tuber at the base of the deepest root and if one 'branch' comes up in your plot and you nip that off, there will be another branch somewhere else that's photosynthesising and keeping the roots alive.
Copious application of glpyhosphate or ammonium sulphamate MIGHT destroy enough root system, but at what cost?

Palustris, when you hoe it, do you pick up the chopped tops? Any point doing so?

Personally, I just aspire to have none of it prospering above ground and if I can pluck out 3 inches of root, I'm satisfied.
There is a certain pleasure when I spot a little cluster of shoots and plucking them out pulls a common root a few inches deep.

We grow our veg in the top foot or so. That's where our attention is best spent. It's also where many of our marestail roots end if it was born of a chopped root.

Remember that indestructible as it is, marestail does little harm to how much we harvest. It's not a greedy or competitive weed and casts little shadow.

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