In message , Norman Digger
writes
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?


To add to the other suggestions. Sheet mulches work well and
stopping/killing weeds - cardboard boxes work well for this they
breakdown nicely and add organic matter to the soil. A year sheet
mulching will kill off a lot of weeds, not seeds of course though, and
not all of the most vigorous of perennials such as nettle and bindweed,
but the roots are easy to remove when it is lifted.

You can also use the 'no -dig' approach - which is basically, using
mulches (sheet or loose or both) over the soil and plating through that.

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!

Well, whatever variety of grass it was it won't have been the clippings,
they don't root. We use grass clippings as a mulch all the time. Either
the clippings included grass that had gone to seed, and thus the
clippings contained the seeds , or there we roots of say couch grass in
the soil, which when rotovated got chopped up and spread around the
patch. Or just coincidence.

But take care when rotovating, if the patch contains perennial weeds,
this will just cop up the roots, many bits of which may roots, so giving
you more weeds.


--
Chris French