"Norman Digger" wrote in message
...
: Does anyone have strategies for minimising this arduous task in a veg
plot?
:
: I've spent half the afternoon bent double pulling up weeds and grass from
: between my spring greens and my back is killing me!
:
: How do others cope with weeds?
:
: Suggestions anyone for a weed free veg plot - or at least how to minimise
: the work getting rid of them?
:
: I don't know whether to go for wide rows so I can easily get between to
weed
: or narrow rows so there is no room for weeds to compete?
:
: I own every type of hoe available to mankind and personally find the Dutch
: hoe best provided the weeds are small. On the down side I tend to slip
: sometimes and whoops there goes another veggie to the great compost heap
in
: the sky. It is virtually impossible to hoe right up to plants and this
seems
: to be where dandelions sneak in.
:
: Why do weeds grow ten times faster than vegetables?
:
: Often time is a problem, or rather the lack of it, and weed seedlings have
: raced a foot high and beyond hoeing so it is the back breaking job of
trying
: to pull them up. Unfortunately lots have long tap roots and just snap off.
A
: few weeks later they are back but with five stems instead of one.
:
: Last year I made a terrible mistake of rotorvating lots of fresh lawn
: clippings straight into part of the veg plot that has heavy clay soil. It
: seemed like a good idea at the time. Unfortunately this part of the veg
plot
: has now become a lawn too! I don't know what variety of grass it was but
the
: clippings have rooted!
:
: Another mistake was allowing some weeds run to seed, and that part of the
: veg plot is plagued with a carpet of weed seedlings this year. Even after
: rotorvating them several times, after a little rain a fresh dense carpet
of
: weeds seedlings pop up. Lesson learned!
:
: Norman Digger.
:
You say you have lots of hoes (reminds me of the Two Ronnies) but do you hoe
when the ground is clear? That is the way to keep them down. Regularly hoe
your free ground as well as between crops and you only need to handweed
close up to seedlings or plants