Spring weed control

[Penellype]

Most of the replys are to the hoe and cover variety, for those who cannot get to the allotments that often, there is a home weed killer doing the rounds on facebook, this involves a gallon of white vinegar, a half cup of salt and some liguid soap. there are differing results being put out, as to what effect compared to the nursery sold stuff is i cannot vouch, but I will give it a go, as I need to watch my health, weeding is very much a liquid affair.

I'd be very wary of putting large amounts of salt on your plot as this will kill a lot of plants and will remain in the soil. Vinegar will make the soil acid, which many veg don't like.

[Lumpy]

The lottie's owners have given us a huge role of weed control fabric so I have laid it all around the raspberries (it was tricky cutting small holes in such a large sheet - note to self don't try and work with something the size of a small planet) and I might just have a go at laying it down between the rows, if and when they grow.

[kathyd]

Two or three layers of newspaper or junk mail covered with an inch or two of grass clippings is my favourite. The whole lot smushes down and becomes a kind of thin crust which keeps weeds down for weeks, and can eventually be broken up with a trowel and dug back into the soil.

[Ovce domácí]

Cardboard boxes. I work in an IT dept and Im able to bring a load of monitor and pc boxes home which would just be chucked out. Then gather the damp pulp up, give it a good mullering, mix with sawdust and dry in the sun for eco-briquettes if you have a solid fuel stove.

[1Bee]

Since reading the RHS advice to tackle horsetails by simply cutting them down as often as possible, I leave that particular species to my four year old. He loves hunting them down, breaking them off, and adding them to the heap.

[danny31]

I got the keys to the allotment site last November, and set about digging out the brambles, bindweed, nettles and horsetail on my little half plot. I looked about at the neighbouring plots and felt really pleased with myself. Then April came along. All the other plots started getting spruced up, and all my annual weeds came up (as well as quite a few of the perennials - bah!), so now I feel like the poor relation again. Out with the fork again...

[Gillykat]

You and me both Danny Have you regained the upper hand yet?

Back in early June I was away from the plot too much (family bereavement and working full-time instead of part-time for three weeks) and the weeds just went crazy on my paths Even now I still feel like they are slightly more in control than I am!!! Should be better over the winter as proper paths with weed suppressant membrane will be getting laid.

[sparrow100]

Most of the replys are to the hoe and cover variety, for those who cannot get to the allotments that often, there is a home weed killer doing the rounds on facebook, this involves a gallon of white vinegar, a half cup of salt and some liguid soap. there are differing results being put out, as to what effect compared to the nursery sold stuff is i cannot vouch, but I will give it a go, as I need to watch my health, weeding is very much a liquid affair.

Am not adding salt and acid to my soil...a weekly hoe sorts most things out quickly - fortnightly or monthly in winter. For me, covering with card & manure or with card under tarps works well.

[KevinM67]

Now is normally quite a good time to buy weed suppressant fabric in the shops (like Wilcos, etc.) as they are getting rid of most of the gardening stuff on the shelves to make way for xmas stuff.

I try and use what I can find to cover the ground over the winter - green manures, cardboard, old curtains, etc.

I know I'm in the minority on here - but I enjoy giving the ground a good dig/fork over in the spring. It gets a bit of air into the ground and spruces the soil up - it also helps deal with any drainage issues that may occur in parts of my plot.

[Two_Sheds]

I chop up all foliage, weeds, old plants etc with seckies and leave the clippings on the soil as a mulch. Any weeds that do take hold are easily pulled out, by doing a sweep under the mulch with a gloved hand.
New seedlings are planted easily, the mulch just gets pushed aside.