Weeds

[Roy Bham UK]

Don’t turn your back on them, >:( I have been pain stakingly digging over my second plottie before tilling it to get rid of a few weeds, well there were a few when I first started digging. :(

A lot of this stuff is creeping buttercup and boy it don’t creep it runs and deep too! >:( I was wanting the extra space to accommodate caulis, sprouts and broccoli as I have sown many seeds not realizing they need a lot of space when moving from the nursery bed.  :-[

Best way for me to learn perhaps? :'( Doubt it as my memory isn’t that good, ah well. ::)



6 weeks on :o

[Roy Bham UK]

[Robert_Brenchley]

I've had to turn my back on mine while I did the annual GCSE marking. Naturally they've gone mad. It could be worse, the first year I did it they were waist high.

[Mrs Ava]

Roy, mine is as bad, but the more you work your plot, the easier these weeds are to get out, and soon, if mother nature is being kind, you are left with annuals which you can just hoe off!  I get a lot of buttercup and marestail, but the ground is getting softer and softer as it is filled with lashings of compost, and I can now pull the buttercups out easily, and I am pulling out marestail with roots a foot long!  Gotta slow their growth, surely!!

However, it is looking great Roy!  ;D

[Mothy]

Roy,

As it's my 1st year, I have been staggered by the sheer vigour of the annual weeds. Their rate of growth is amazing!! I have dispatched countless wheelbarrow loads to the compost bin, and still they come.

But I figure that at least they won't get to seed this year which has got to help over the next few seasons? May not be next year, but it's got to make a difference??

Keep digging, hoeing and strimming, mate!!  ;D

[busy_lizzie]

They seem to go mad this time of the year unless you keep at them, which I know is not always possible.  The lottie holder opposite us has worked so hard at his plot  and practically had it clear, but I haven't seen him for about three weeks now.  I feel sorry for him when he does comes back as he will get a shock when he sees his plot, as it looks worse than when he first started and all his work has been undone.  :( busy_lizzie

[Roy Bham UK]

;D Everything is a bit mix 'n' match at the mo as I am throwing in surplus and over spills onto the new plot,  ;D tee hee ;D I've just noticed the path is bent ;D
I'm a little worried that a few of the lottie folk on our site are losing interest as the weeds are now hiding their crops, there are 14 of us in total, I do hope this new site doesn't fail. :-\ :(

[Melbourne12]

....
I'm a little worried that a few of the lottie folk on our site are losing interest as the weeds are now hiding their crops, there are 14 of us in total, I do hope this new site doesn't fail. :-\ :(

I suspect that getting disheartened and giving up may be a common problem.  When we started in May we were told the story of one guy on our site who had taken over an allotment earlier in the year, and had paid to have it rotavated so as to get off to a good start (how the other half live, eh?  ;D )

He had then left it for several weeks before coming back to plant something.  The weeds were, of course, now rampant.  Apparently he took one look and fled, never to return.

[Piglottie]

Roy - you have my sympathy!  I spent yesterday hand weeding our first raised bed (10ft x 4ft) on new plot and that was bad enough.  We've taken the (hopefully?) easy route and covered 2/3 of lottie in black plastic.  But still know we've got a battle on our hands cos the plots been vacant over 23 years and both plots either side are jungles.  Let battle commence  ;)

[Robert_Brenchley]

Now the marking's out of the way I'll be doing a bit every day I can get there until the summer's over. With the long holiday I should get well on top this year, just for a change. If you don't have tine to deal with it properly, strimming's an easy way of discouraging it on a temporary basis; the soft new growth cuts terribly easily so it's soon done.

[Jesse]

Roy you're not alone on the weed problem. A couple of months ago there wasn't a weed in sight on my plot. Now, they seem to have grown overnight. Last year my plot was neglected by the previous tenant so it is riddled with annual weed seeds and they sprout up so quickly. Just keep trying your best and each year it will get easier, so I've been told.  :)

[redimp]

I have accepted that this year I am fighting a bit of a losing battle against the weeds on my plot and yes, quite a few are going to run to seed.  I hope next year, the experience of this year will mean that I am better prepared.  I never did expect to get much right this year so everything I get is a bonus and I am getting some of those.  Do not worry.  I will not give up!!

[Nettles]

What I would like to know is why, when I accidently just clip a veggie by mistake with the hoe that it promptly dies whereas after hacking away at weeds they seem to pop up again with renewed vigour within hours!!!!  >:( >:(

[tamsin]

My plot is 2/3s couch grass that's all about 3 feet high and gone to seed. The way I see it though, that's 1/3 clear ;D! And I actually find pulling it out quite therapuetic! Is this normal... ?

[Merry Tiller]

What I would like to know is why, when I accidently just clip a veggie by mistake with the hoe that it promptly dies whereas after hacking away at weeds they seem to pop up again with renewed vigour within hours!!!! 

The law according to sod ???

[Mrs Ava]

Just think how full your compost heaps are going to be with all of these weeds going in!  ;D

Emma Jane, looking on the bright side!  :-\

[Trenchboy]

Took over my half waterlogged and lil bit sloping surrey allotment in February. Only saw the couch. Shrugged - just a bit of digging over 2/3 years and it pretty much goes.

Then there were the thistle things.

And then the horsetail...

Perverse? I get a monster monster kick out of digging down into the clay and ripping their black, skulking, elasticated bodies out.
I know they'll be back, but it's great to whirl a 12 - 18 inch root around my head before throwing it into the "to be burned" pile.

Now I feel better!

And the Roundup only hurts the weeds you can see. The crafty, cunning roots of field convulvulus and ground elder just shrink away to come back when me and the roundup have gone home...

Amicide over late autumn and winter for the unused sections is tempting me. Read a book about how weeds are friends. What was that guy on?

[flowerlady]

Do you realy think it is safe to put bindweed back into the compost heap?  All I ever seem to have achieved in the past is a growing medium for more! :-\

Weeed!

[Robert_Brenchley]

You can compost bindweed provided the heap is covered. Really strong roots can survive a year in a compost bin wo the best bet with them and docks, which can also survive, is to put them somewhere to wither for a bit before composting them. Alternatively, you can pick them out of the compost when you distribute it.