Leave weeds for the winter?

[Whatalottie]

Because of various family probs last year I was unable to weed as I would normally. As a result there's a thick growth of annual weeds. I was about to dig over the beds using them as a sort of green manure, when it occurred to me that nitrogen and other soluble food is washed out of bare soil in winter. Why not wait till spring?

Fresh green stuff dug in require nitrogen to help decompose, but what is the net result?
Would I be be worse off than if I'd removed them in the autumn? Or should I take the benefit that they've helped the soil retain nitrogen etc. and weed them out in the spring before digging.

I'd dug some beds before I thought of this. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

What are your thoughts please?

[veggiechicken]

If its annual weeds i would hoe the tops off and leave them to die off.

[happyhumph]

What VC says. Annual weeds have a tendency to flower and set seed while your back's turned...

[PyreneesPlot]

I leave them (I am a lazy gardener). Once they set seed, although potentially a bigger problem for the spring, they provide food for birds right now. We've had a flock of goldfinches eating groundsel heads in the veg plot today.

[DataMonkey]

Bit of a tangent this, but I have quite a bit of groundsel on my new plot, and it's easy enough to control, but towards the end of last summer, I noticed that in an area that I had let go a bit, all the groundsel was covered in a weird coloured caterpillar that seemed to love it (I think it was yellow and black striped from memory).

The caterpillars didn't seem to be going for anything else apart from the groundsel so I just let them be and they disappeared when the groundsel stopped.

Was I imagining things ??

[veggiechicken]

Probably caterpillars of the Cinnabar moth.

[DataMonkey]

Just Googled them and that's them vc !!

According to Wiki:

"More serious symptoms such as atopic asthma, osteochondritis, dermatitis, hemorrhage, and potentially fatal renal failure, have been attributed to direct contact with the caterpillar."

I'm glad I left them alone now....

[veggiechicken]

They're often seen on ragwort - that's how I know them. I didn't know they liked groundsel until now
You learn something new every day

[vixylix]

ah its a red moth - always avoid anything red. They're all dodgy so and so's

Pretty caterpillar though!

[purplekat]

Once the weather warms up, they will start to grow very quickly so you need to be ready. BUT if any dandelions, they will provide much needed early nectar for newly emerged bees, and having living roots in the soil is supposed to help keep the mycorrhizal fungi in the soil over winter. Plus they will help keep the soil structure from compacting (although depends how big the roots are) and should protect the top of the soil from forming a hard cap over winter.

[Muddy_Boots]

I've just dug a bed of last years annual weeds in, I was told by my dad that you should dig them in a spade depth so they die from lack of light and rot to give the nutrients up for your own produce you are growing. You do the same when you plant green manure to grow over winter, you always dig them in before they flower. Any perennials also get dug in so the foliage dies, any roots get forked out in the spring prior to planting.

I will be digging another bed of annual weeds today (Sunday) ready for the spring, better than raking them and adding them to your compost pile.