Weeds!

[rodduz]

Hi,

At work we have three raised flower/veg beds. Each approximately 1.2mx3m and 2ft deep (please excuse my mixture of imperial/metric).

I want to plant in them with the pupils I work with. Only today I became aware of these beds. The issues are:

There's weeds in all of them, not completely overgrown apart from one which is pretty much overtaken with weeds.

Also there was veg grown in these last year, not a great amount, a few carrots by the sounds of it.

Questions are what do we do? We obviously want to get planting asap. Weeds need to be taken care of first. We were going to fork it, throw out as much of the weeds as possible and then mix in a few 50l bags of compost and plant?

Any suggestions, much appreciated

Thanks

[Two_Sheds]

There's weeds in all of them

Yes, there will be. Nature abhors a vacuum, and she likes bare soil even less

Pull the weeds out, compost them, and get the beds planted up

[Jeanied]

Depending on the age of the children, you could get them to help with the clearing and composting. If not it needs to be done by an adult ready for the children to start.
I always start with some seed sowing - radish, rocket and carrots at this time of year.
Then I start some seeds off for them to plant out - still time for dwarf beans and peas.
I always grow pumpkins and squashes with my gardening group as they are fascinating. And cucumbers because the children love to eat them

[kathycam]

Weeds are actually a good sign, it means the ground is healthy. If there was no weeds that would be more wrong. Hopefully if its a raised bed that has been recently used, its annual weeds, rather than perennial. Pull them out and compost them. Adding fresh compost will help and you're good to go.

If there are any perennial weeds, its usually a good idea to fully kill them before adding to the compost, you can drown them, burn them or put them in darkness for several months. Perennial weeds could be nettles, bindweed, dandelions etc. Sounds like a fun project!

[rodduz]

Cool! Glad I don't have to weed, then spray and then wait etc etc. Want to get them in asap :-)

Looking forward to the project. The pupils taking part will be 16 on average so get them to do the hard work ;-)

Thanks guys! Excellent help, as always.

[Knight of Albion]

Getting young people interested in gardening, great stuff.

Weed by hand, it won't take long. No need for poisons.

Other times a quick rake over with a hoe, early morning, on a sunny day, will keep the weeds in check.

I'm mindful of the summer holidays in late July, so some quick growing salad vegetables, like lettuce and rocket for example, will be a good idea and keep their interest.

[Two_Sheds]

Glad I don't have to weed, then spray

you do one or the other, not both

[rodduz]

Well I went down to have a look at the beds today, and our maintenance guy had just finished spraying them!

So now I have to give it a week I think...