mogga wrote in
:

On Wed, 31 Oct 2012 11:55:30 +0100, "Raymond RUSSELL"
wrote:


Hello all

My vegetable garden is swamped in weeds
with very fine hair roots
that are almost impossible to clear by simply digging out.
I think they arrived in the manure a local farmer gave me.
They just keep reappearing year after year
and tend to elbow out young veg seedlings etc.

Does covering the ground with plastic tarpaulin
over winter and early spring actually help ?


It should keep the ground weed free but the minute you remove it
they'll regrow unless you keep it on for a long time.

Grow something that'll swamp them out quickly.
In summer courgettes and pumpkins cover soil quickly ...
Spring - but harder. But why not plant things out and give them
cardboard circles like you might to stop root fly? And then mulch
round them with straw, grass cuttings etc?

Do you know what the weeds are?

If the weeds have seeded they will grow very quickly after the tarpaulin is
removed in spring. You will have to hoe and sometimes hand pick them. We
all have to do this to some extent. Manure is a bugger for weeds IME but we
have to have it I think.

Mogga's idea with cardboard and then mulch works well for me but watch out
for slugs, they love it under there. This is the best bet even so IMO.

Very best of luck.
Baz