hostile takeover

[stpaulsfc]

Hello all
I've only recently had my plot as some of you may know. I've been working hard to get it ready to plant and have managed to plant some onions and garlic, which have sprouted...however!!! i've been on my honeymoon for the last 2 weeks and when I went down to my plot yesterday, for the first time since coming home, my onion and garlic rows have become overrun with what looks like clover (I have no idea...green stuff).

I made a lot of effort in clearing weeds from this part of my plot, before I planted and when I left for my honeymoon, all was fine and my onions and garlic had just started sprouting.

Is the only thing for me to do, to get down on my hands and knees and try my damnedest to clear the little green b******? advice is VERY welcome.

[veggiechicken]

Congratulations!!
First you need to identify your enemy! A photo would help.
You may be able to hoe the tops off if its an annual weed.

[Zelenina]

Hi stpauls. Unfortunately the soil is full of weed seeds just waiting to spring into action the moment your back is turned. It's just a fact of gardening life. And the wind and birds are always bringing more of them to plague you.

Some big tough plants with broad leaves can compete well with weeds once they get established, by shading and starving them out. But onions and garlic are too wimpy to do this. So yes, you'll need to wage war on them yourself. Either on your hands and knees or by careful hoeing. There are even special onion hoes with a half-moon shape to avoid damaging the onion bulbs.

Hoeing works best in dry weather on weeds that are still small. You basically cut them off from their roots and leave them to die. In wetter weather it's probably better to pull them up or dig them out with a hand fork. If they are perennial weeds you'll need to get all the roots too. If you post a piccie here. someone will tell you what kind of weeds they are.

[Duvy]

Hi,

I try to clear weeds, once clear I cover the area in clear plastic to heat the soil and encourage any further weeds to appear, which then get removed and then I plant.

Although weeds will still come through during the year, I will have cleared the vast majority before planting

[Tripmeup]

Yes get the weeds out of there asap....Onions and garlic just hate weeds as competition....Someone once advised when growing garlic "weed, weed, check for weeds and weed again"
...you get the drift...

[Kirk]

Sounds like whatever is just sprouting so a hoe or rake - one of the narrow things whatever they are called - between the garlics should disturb them sufficently that they give up and die. At last for now, the next wave will start growing soon after however.

It will take a few years to get to the stage where the number of weeds that appear is really small, and on an allotment that may never happen as many will be airbourne.

[CaraFlower]

Welcome to the ongoing battle. It always seems like if you blink for too long, weeds appear! Hopefully it is just an annual and sometimes hands and knees is best to be honest. I saw mention on here of mulching onions with grass clippings, seems a good idea to help keep the soil from sprouting - might try it myself.

[Snadger]

Yes get the weeds out of there asap....Onions and garlic just hate weeds as competition....Someone once advised when growing garlic "weed, weed, check for weeds and weed again"
...you get the drift...

The best Kelsae onions I ever grew were surrounded with chickweed! Chickweed holds moisture around the plants and takes very few nutrients out of the land.

Clover is a legume and fixates nitrogen which benefits the plants, as well as helping to keep ground under its leaves moist.

Anyway, there is no such thing as a weed, its just a green mulch!

[SusieG]

I saw mention on here of mulching onions with grass clippings, seems a good idea to help keep the soil from sprouting - might try it myself.

Yes, CaraFlower, I read that too and was thinking what a good idea it seems - anything to discourage those pesky weeds from thriving!!!

[Tripmeup]

The best Kelsae onions I ever grew were surrounded with chickweed! Chickweed holds moisture around the plants and takes very few nutrients out of the land.

Clover is a legume and fixates nitrogen which benefits the plants, as well as helping to keep ground under its leaves moist

Anyway, there is no such thing as a weed, its just a green mulch!

Hmm, don't think I apply that principle to some weeds I see, but hey-ho
Of course, hence the saying "one man's meat is another man's poison.."

[ESBkevin]

Weed and then mulch. A nice thich mulch of cardboard and or crass cuttings between the rows, you still have to 'hand weed' around the bulbs but it is a much easier task than doing all of it, and the soil moisture stays higher as a bonus.

[stpaulsfc]

i'll be heading down the allotment later on today, so i will take a picture then but from what I can tell by looking on the internet, my onions and garlic are surrounded by oxalis.
Looks like i'll be spending my afternoon on my hands and knees getting it all away from then bulbs and then hoeing between the rows.

[snakeshack]

weed first then mulch,grass clippings, newspaper, straw, anything to exclude the light from the surface, by the years end it will have started to decompose and can be turned in to improve your soil for next year ,when you can mulch again.
about half the weed seeds will germinate every year naturally ....hence one years seeds seven years weeds,as it takes a while for the weed seed population to drop.

[milupas]

As far as I know legumes and alliums don't make good companion plants

[MarkPelican]

Look on the bright side:

Weeds => Compost => soil improver => better plants => better crops => more food

i.e. weeds now means more food later