Mulching v. Hoeing?

[1Bee]

I'm getting confused. I agree with the excellent advice about improving my new plot with plenty of mulching. I don't have access to much mulch material, but I've been saving grass cuttings from the tiny strip of grass we cut, and letting them wilt down. "Ah-ha!" I thought, I'll use those to mulch around the parsnips. Or leeks. Or PSB.

Then I thought, "hang on, how will I hoe?"

Now, no amount of mulching will prevent the horsetails, bindweed or thistles, which are the main weeds I'm battling. I weed out the roots where I can, but where I can't, I'm hoeing them down regularly to weaken them in the long-term battle...

And there's no point using impermeable material like weed membrane or cardboard, because the goal is to introduce more organic material....

Conundrum.

Thoughts?

[veggiechicken]

Cardboard is "organic" and composts itself over time

[alldigging]

cardboard with stuff on top also works.

[muddled]

I mulch rather than hoe.

I don't have horsetail but have bindweed, couch grass and docks.
Lots and Lots of docks

I find that when any of these poke through the mulch (I use straw, £3.75 for a huge bale here in London) when they poke their little heads up I pull them gently and the whole thing, root and all, tends to just slide on out.
I think the weeds are slightly confused about where the soil ends and the mulch begins....they aren't anchored very strongly!

I didn't find cardboard worked very well for me. Both the bindweed and the couchgrass happily ran underneath it...mutiplying and tangling for great distances only to emerge with renewed vigour at the edges.

So I would say, dig out what roots you can to knock the weeds back then mulch heavily and pull weeds as you see them.
If you are undecided and don't have very much mulching material anyway, why not try different methods on sections of your plot this year?
That way, come next season you'll know exactly what works best for you.

[1Bee]

"If you are undecided and don't have very much mulching material anyway, why not try different methods on sections of your plot this year?
That way, come next season you'll know exactly what works best for you."

*slaps forehead* Of course! Honestly. I should have thought of that....

Thanks everyone!

[snakeshack]

I have horsetail & bindweed on my plot,and mulch deeply (up to 6 ins),it doesn't kill the horsetail but weakens it sufficiently that a gentle steady pull removes it with about a foot of root attached and it takes a long while to return.as for the bindweed ,I provide a stick for it to climb up and when it has a reasonable leaf area paint with glyco,which kills the roots (no chance of bits left behind)

[noviceveggrower]

I have buttercups, couch grass and some plant known as 'birds eye', well that's what a little old lady called it when she stopped to chat to me the other day.
I am hoeing at the moment but intend to get a shed load of cardboard down to try and slow the weeds down a bit.
I admit I hate weeding but I do find hoeing quite therapeutic chopping the weeds heads off, chopping them with the hoe and then watching them wither in the sun. Its also quite a steady work out and the kids can do it to.

[alldigging]

Hoeing bare soil creates a dust mulch.
Hoeing weedy soil leaves a mulch of dead weeds.

[Alison]

I am a rubbish hoer as I cut too many plant stems so I stopped doing it some years ago and hand weed, pulling up as much weed root as I can each time

[Pendipidy]

Can I ask, when I hoe, and pull weeds out by hand, is it better to remove them or let them just die where they lay? If I leave them, will they regrow again? I always worry about this when hoeing!

[Bigmallly]

Can I ask, when I hoe, and pull weeds out by hand, is it better to remove them or let them just die where they lay? If I leave them, will they regrow again? I always worry about this when hoeing!

When hoeing, I leave the tops on the soil to die off & rot down. The weed will obviously return as you have not got rid of the root. When hand weeding, they need to be dispersed of as they may re-root.

[veggiechicken]

Annual weeds can be left to shrivel on the ground. Its preferable to dig out perennial weeds and discard the roots as they may regrow.

[Mark Lottie]

i mulch thickly so any weeds that come up are easily yanked out.

muddled - may i ask where you get straw from for that price?

cheers

[ESBkevin]

Cardboard and mulch on top usually last a few months for all but perennial weeds. Perennials are allowed to get big enough to zap with glysophate as a spray or gel. then they rarely come back, sometimes a second application is needed to make sure.
A sharp draw hoe can actually be very fast with practice, I'm less accurate with a Dutch hoe and often get intimate with an onion hoe and fingers where small crops can't be draw hoed.
A blunt Hoe is harder to control and makes the process require more energy.