Feeling Disheartened

[Ruthie_Q]

Hi there. Hope you are all well. I just wanted some seasoned allotmenteer advice. Ive had my plot now for 4 yrs'ish & I was so proud of what hubby & I achieved. We cleared a plot that had been severley neglected & filled a builders skip of rubbish from it. We've done really well with produce but life is getting in the way a bit. I feel guilty when i open that gate & see all the weeds that have grown in the space of 7 days. I look over at our next door neighbours & his is spotless. We've put weed membrane in between paths & woodchip as we needed to keep it as low maintenace as much as possible with full time working. Some beds we just plant through membrane but the weeds grow through or even on top of the membrane. I dont want to give it up as i waited 12 years for this plot.and i do love being there but at the moment its really hard. Have other allotmenteers experienced this... . In the words of Disney do i let it go.... the guilt??? Thanks for listening & for any words of wisdom.

[Mr Bones]

Hi Ruthie, we run our allotment as no dig covering the beds with (home made) compost and find it so much easier to maintain compared to digging etc. You're probably already aware that most weed seeds need light to germinate so not turning the soil over to bring new seeds to the surface and keeping them in the dark keeps them dormant.
Also mulching beds is so much easier (and quicker) than digging each year and keeps moisture in the soil so less time spent watering too.
Getting sufficient mulch can be problematic but using what you can get hold is often the answer. When we started down the no dig route the only thing I had in abundance was wood chips. Not ideal but sprinkling the beds with chicken manure pellets and drenching every now and then with home made actively aerated compost tea helped get things under way (using rotted wood chips is loads better than using fresh). I found too that a 60 ltr bag of mpc was enough to mulch a 5m x 1m onion bed so kept an eye out for end of season sales. Once a no dig bed is established it only takes an inch or so of topping each year to keep it going.
If you have perennial weeds maybe check out Charles Dowding on YouTube. Last year he took on a horse pasture full of problem weeds and turned it into usable veg beds.
Good luck with it

[Jungle Jane]

I don’t have an allotment,I’ve got a garden & sometimes it is difficult getting time,especially when it rains when you’ve got loads of time Do you feel like it’s really stressful or do you think you can carry on doing little here & there when you can. Could anyone help for a few hours to get on top of things,buy some bushy squash & courgette plants to cover the ground,have you got anything growing there now? At this time of year it is really busy out there & anxiety is there with the amount that needs doing.

[Snoop Puss]

Hi Ruthie, am very busy this afternoon but wanted to give you a friendly cyber hug for now.

[greenishfing]

Ruthie, I know that feeling all too well. We have had years like yours. In fact this year is one of the worst of them. However I would hate to give ours up as I always feel so much better once I actually do something out in the fresh air, even weeding. I must say I am very grateful for my wonderful neighbours.

[bramble]

Hi Ruthie, I dont have an allotment but a big back garden.
Weeding is indeed a full time job.
Jungle Jane's suggestion is a very good one.
Bushy squash and courgettes which will help to smother the weeds.
Cardboard weighted down with wood chips or large bricks and stones to deprive the weeds of light.
Once you get it under control you will be better able to matk out beds and paths.
Good luck with it.

[Ruthie_Q]

Jungle Jane - we dont have anyone to help, unfortunately. My brother & friends aren't interested and my parents are elderly. Were the youngest on the allotment block so i cant really ask them either. I have just felt a bit overwhelmed with it this year so its nice to hear that other plot holders have felt the same way.hubby reckons it was because last yr we werent allowed to go anywhere cos of covid. So we spent all our time at the plot as it was an escape from the madness of the world at the time & therefore last yr it looked fab as any weed was pulled up nearly immediately. We have a big problem with marestail & this year it seems to be really bad. I think i might take on board Mr Bones response & do a bit more mulching in the beds. The soil is very poor so it wont do it any harm.

[Ruthie_Q]

Thank you all so much for taking the time out to respond.

[Snoop Puss]

Hi Ruthie,

I can vouch for the no-dig and mulching approach being successful with regard to weeds. I'm slowing turning over to no-dig after an experiment in some beds last year. I have to say the weeding in the no-dig beds in preparation for this growing season was nothing like as bad as the other beds. I trot along now and pull out a few bits of bindweed every day in those beds, but that's it. Done in ten minutes or so. I'm amazed. Bindweed used to be a massive problem.

I've started on a new patch this year and am going full no-dig in those. At the moment, the weeds are plentiful to say the least. But I'm expecting next year to be a lot better. I have branching horsetail in these new beds and that will keep pushing through the mulch. But don't worry about digging it up, just tug and take as much as you can whenever you can. You'll weaken it eventually. And the other plotholders will love you for keeping the spores down.

Lots of older folk are retired and, just like you last year, are able to spend long hours on their plots. So they're bound to look better than yours at the moment. But just you wait: if you can find enough material to compost and mulch, you'll be amazed at how little time it takes to keep your plot in shape. Rather than weeding, you can do some 'proper' gardening instead.

We all of us get disheartened. Lack of time, a spell of ill health, some pesky pests and some unfavourable weather can hold us all back. But if you get your soil in good fettle, these are just temporary setbacks.

There's plenty of the growing year ahead. Jungle Jane's suggestion of sprawling plants is a good one. They'll steal light from the weeds and cover a lot of ground. Lettuce too can be quite a good crop for covering ground, and if you've got so many of them they bolt before you can eat them all, it's not the end of the world. Lettuce seeds are cheap, the roots will have been good for the soil and the leaves will compost really well. Keep lots of lettuce sown in modules, so you can just keep bunging them in whenever a spot becomes vacant and treat them almost like a cover crop as well as an edible crop.

If you have a bit of money to spare, here are two tools that I think Jay22 recommended to me that I've found invaluable: a hori hori Japanese trowel (the scariest trowel you've ever seen, but so good for sliding into the soil and cutting off weed roots a long way down; and another Japanese tool, a nejiri gama hand hoe, brilliant for scraping the soil surface and getting rid of weeds.

Good luck. x

[Ruthie_Q]

Snoop Puss - thank you for your kind words. I never thought about thinking of lettuce as a cover crop. What an amazing idea. I need to look at a bigger compost heap. The 2 daleks arent big enough & its all piled in a heap at the bootom of the plot. I will google those tools def & yes my neighbours are retired they spend every day there. I guess i need to stop being so hard on myself i guess x

[Nicos]

You do indeed Ruthie!

You should see parts of my garden /potagers / gravel driveway. I’ve never had so many weeds. It’s a bad year for them - so you’re not the only one

[ameno]

I don't think you should feel pressured to keep your plot completely weed-free or anything like that (unless there's some requirement in your contract, at least).
I certainly don't. I just weed periodically, usually once the weeds have gotten to a fairly decent size. It's a lot less work that way, and it doesn't seem to affect yields (you learn after a while how much competition crops can put up with, and which weeds are most competitive). The important thing is to at least catch them before they run to seed.

[bikermike]

Don't be disheartened!
everyone has tricky times.

The last few years have followed a pattern of cold dry april(ish) followed by warm wet may, which means the weeds go mental at just the wrong time. Suddenly plots which should be under control are running away. I have knee-high grass everywhere at the moment.

one thing - are you using woven weed-matting? That doesn't work in my experience, the dang things grow through it.

Maybe have a year where you cover off a few beds or green manure them (I love phalocea(?), it grows easily from seed, has attractive flowers that polinators love, covers well, but doesn't have deep roots)?

[quanglewangle]

Don't worry about how you got here: you can't change the past, forget it.

Look at your allotment as if it had just been offered to you. It probably looks fairly well looked after. I would hope your reaction might be something like: "it's not too bad, could manage that"

Don't judge your performance relative to others, so what if they are super neat. Reflect on the joy you get out of it.

Sorry, end of grandfatherly finger wagging.

[Nicos]

Nice bit of grandfatherly finger wagging there Q ! Wise words.