"June Hughes" wrote in message
...

Hello June,

Hi Mary. I am so sorry I missed this and have only just noticed it. I
bought one about two years ago (possibly three - time flies). It is
rubbish. I hate it. It burns the tops of the weeds off and that is it.
Roots remain.

Yes, but that's the same with many solutions, including hoeing. The point is
you have to prevent the tops returning in some way then the roots give up so
repeated burning is the way to go.

It also tends to singe anything adjacent to the plants you are trying to
destroy, although by the sound of it, you want to do the whole lot.
Also - as I am a wimp - I found it a bit scary.

There's nothing near the plants.

I can't think of anything a lightly built person could do except dig,
which is hard going.

Well, I'm not lightly built but you're right and none of us is capable of
digging that heavy wet, Welsh soil.

A rotovator would just turn the weeds back in and they would pop up again.

Exactly.

I suppose the best thing to do would be to get a labourer in to dig it
over but that would probably be rather expensive.

Yes. It's a big plot.

Other than that, recruit some younger members of the family to have a
'dig-in' with food thrown in. That might do the trick.

Um - the rest of the family lives in Yorkshire :-) It's a long way to South
Wales.

Having considered all the possible solutions (and I'm grateful for all
friendly and positive ones including yours) burning seems to be the best.
It's not perfect but chemicals simply wouldn't be allowed on that farm
without daughter losing her organic status and that's of prime importance.

If only it were brambles, then the goat would have a birthday! He and his
erstwhile companion made the new-to-daughter farm a lot bigger over a couple
of years by chomping through the overgrown boundary :-)

Mary