New plot- advice on how to control the weeds, please!

[burach beg]

Hi all, i'm hoping to start working on my new plot at the weekend. I've been to see it and it's very overgrown just now, not having been worked for about 18months. From what i can see it's mostly grass and docks that are the problem. No sign of other perennial weeds; YET, anyway. Having seen the advice on the forum, i'm going to start with working on 1 bed first, and leave the others til i'm ready to work them. I've also read that cardboard is a good weed suppressor, so i'm going to try that. But should i try and dig the beds over before i put the cardboard down, or should i just cover them straight away? Also, to keep the cardboard in place can i put the free manure on top of the cardboard- is this a sensible idea? I'd really appreciate a bit of advice before i get started.
Many thanks, and i'm looking forward to 'meeting' folk here, and hopefully picking your brains as i go along.

[Spunky]

Weed killer just make sure there's absolutely no chance of contaminating anything growing in other plots and check you're allowed to use it

[Bigmallly]

If you don't want to go down the chemical route, yes manure covered cardboard will suppress the weeds. If the manure is well rotted you could plant straight through it with spuds for example.

[veggiechicken]

Hi and welcome. I'd go down the covering with cardboard route too. You'll have to dig out the docks when you get to them, but covering them meanwhile will slow their growth.
Using weedkiller on ground that is to be use for growing food crops just doesn't make sense to me - whatever the weedkiller manufacturers may say.

[plam]

Hiya and welcome

This time last year I took over a new plot covered with long grass, docks dandelions etc. I think the decision you need to make now is whether to use weedkillers or not. There is no right or wrong to it, but that really dictates how you'll go ahead.

I chose not to use any weedkillers. What I did was to strim and keep on strimming the whole lot and then dug it out a little bit at a time keeping the rest mowed down. But it took a lot of work to dig out all the weed roots. If you use weedkiller I guess you could skip a lot of this stage.

Anyway, congratulations, you're going to have a whole lot of fun!

[muddled]

I also decided against weedkillers on my plot.

I bought a roll of black plastic from a well known tool shop, covered a large section with mounds of manure and put the plastic over the top. I used a spade to cut a slit in the ground along all four sides and (still using the spade) tucked the edges of the plastic in firmly to neaten and block all the light.
I put pumpkin plants through the plastic at intervals which grew like triffids! Therefore, with a mornings work half my plot was covered and producing while the weeds weakened and started dying.

For the rest of the plot, some I dug...some I used cardboard and woodchips, I've tried all manner of things except chemicals.
For me the plastic and the cardboard win out every time.

[Alison]

I don't use weed killer too - I really can't see any logic in it when one of my key reasons for growing veggies is to reduce the amount of unnecessary toxins in my diet. Not much I can add to the other advice as there's some really good stuff already on this thread.

[Muddy_Boots]

Hi there

You say mainly grass and docks, the grass isn't a real problem but the docks are as they have deep tap roots like dandelions and need digging out.

Covering with either black plastic or cardboard is the way to go to suppress and weaken the weeds before you get to deal with them. What I did was to dig along the first row and each spade full I took to the other end of the plot. That meant I effectively had a trench. Then I dug along the next row just turning the soil over into the trench in front and effectively burying the weeds taking out any obvious thick roots as I went. What I'd turned over and put into the trench in front left another trench. I then did a row at a time until I'd dug enough to be able to use it to plant stuff in. The weeds buried would die and feed what I'd planted. Did this over a 6 week period and ended up digging the whole plot without breaking my back and in the process had planted the entire plot.

btw that first row you dig ends up in the last row.

At the end of the season you should have a plot you can fork over to get any persistent weed roots out and its in the better condition for the winter. If you don't plant stuff straight away after a few weeks you can still fork it over to get the roots left out as the foliage of the weeds will be dead and gone.

[Paulieb]

No chemicals here either.

I used slightly different methods depending on what I was growing.

Potatoes/Strawberries - no digging just plant through black permeable sheeting
Onion sets - no digging then I layed out sheets of cardboard covered with 3 or 4 inches of bought compost and popped the onion sets in around now. By the end of the year I had great onions and only a few thistles growing through.

Brassicas were also no digging just planting through cardboard as they like firm ground.

Carrots/parsnips ideally need a well dug weed free bed to go in so I concentrated my time on digging a bed for these.

Then over the autumn/winter we just turned most of the beds to let the frost get at it and now we've been going through it getting rid of the docks, thistles, couch grass and bindweed.

Now we're starting to build raised beds with wood chip paths and its looking great after 12months.

[Guest]

I am not a fan of weedkiller but when starting out on a plot I have used it (one hit wonder) to get a head start as it can be hard to find the time in the first year to do everything. It can also depend on what your lottie contract says and how much should be cultivated, what is deemed cultivation and by when. Many start off with high hopes and good intentions but the best thing I can say is be realistic

[Mr Bones]

Hello and welcome to the vine Burach Beg. Personally I'd hold back on the weed killer too. If you can't source enough manure just yet you could turn the grass over in turves, chopping off any dock as you go, it'll weaken it. Plant one bed up with spuds, close together so the canopy grows and shades out the light. Then as you work the rest of plot keep hoeing/digging the docks until they give up.
Good luck with it and look forward to some proper tasting veg.

[burach beg]

Thanks for the advice. Tempting though it is, i'm going to hold off on using weedkiller.I'm meeting the guy who runs the site in the next couple of days (it's a private site) and i'll find out more info, i.e. how quickly he would like the plot under cultivation.
I'm looking forward to getting going now. Thanks again.

[MarkPelican]

One piece of advice I would give is that if you're going to hand dig, decide early on where you want your beds and paths to be. There's no point in digging the paths. My allotment consists of 4-6ft wide beds across the with of the allotment with 2ft paths in between them which are covered in weed suppressant fabric. Over the years, I've added compost and manure to the beds and they are now mounded up compared to the paths.

Most of the other allotments are front to back soil but the allotmenteers go up and down with heavy weight machinery. (We're clay so digging is hard work but I have tried to minimise the amount needed.

I suggest weed suppressant on the paths otherwise you spend all your time clearing the grass out of the beds.

Finally, a little at a time. I've seen people get fed up at trying to dig everything before they plant anything. Better to dig some and plant it rather than dig it all and plant nothing.

[purplekat]

I tried both ways last year, dug out dandelions and as much couch grass as possible, then cardboard and a good few inches of manure. There were also patches where I gave up and just put cardboard and manure. The weeds tend to come back either way, but once the cardboard and manure work their way into the soil, it makes it a lot easier to get the deep weeds out. Maybe try googling 'sheet mulching' for ideas, as most seem to just put it on top of grass.

[Cadalot]

One piece of advice I would give is that if you're going to hand dig, decide early on where you want your beds and paths to be. There's no point in digging the paths. My allotment consists of 4-6ft wide beds across the with of the allotment with 2ft paths in between them which are covered in weed suppressant fabric. Over the years, I've added compost and manure to the beds and they are now mounded up compared to the paths.

.

I don't agree, I removed all the couch grass and bind weed from my path areas before covering with weed membrane and wood chippings, if you leave either in there they will find a way back into your beds.