Help weeds ruin things

[Lilylui]

Have a veg garden I did in corner of my field, with raised beds, have tried on the paths cardboard, carpets, weed control membrane, even silage plastic! and still the weeds come through they then spread all over the veg growing area and it’s hard to keep on top of it.
I don’t want to use chemicals which I did try once and still the nettles grew 4 ft high.
Have tried vinegar etc last year I gave up in the end.
Any advice

[Penellype]

Hi Lilylui, welcome to the vine.

It sounds as though you have some pretty tough perennial weeds, which can be really hard to get rid of. If you have had the soil covered for a while you may find that most of the roots are fairly near the surface, so if you peel back the covering on your paths you may be able to get rid of quite a lot of roots very easily. This won't solve the problem, but it will weaken the plants at least for a while.

Some weeds, notably couch grass and Japanese knotweed, have very sharp growing points which can pierce almost anything. I have found couch growing through tarmac and I know knotweed can break concrete. Thankfully I have never had it - I think if you do you must report it. These sorts of weeds are not going to be stopped by a bit of plastic and really the only way to deal with them is to remove as much as possible every time you see them. I don't think there is an easy solution. Try to get at them when they are still small, as plants get most of their energy from their leaves. Very few can grow if you keep cutting them down to soil level.

[Lilylui]

It’s mainly nettles, and fern like plants, lots of thistles hundreds of them, docks and the tap root goes down so deep.
A few yrs ago I totally removed all the soil and filled up with bags of compost but they still came back

[veggiechicken]

Hello Lilylui and welcome.
The seeds of thistle, docks and other perennials lie dormant in the soil until disturbed. They keep coming back. You need to remove any flower heads before they set seed and hoe the tops of the weeds off as they emerge.
How big is your vegetable plot?

[Snoop Puss]

Hello and welcome, Lilylui. Penellype gives some good advice. I'm afraid weeds are very difficult, if not impossible, to eliminate completely. You have to keep at it repeatedly. Like VC says, if you keep removing flower heads and hoe the tops off the weeds, you will eventually get them under control.

VC, that's a pretty alarming avatar for people who don't know you!

[Bren In Pots]

You've had some useful info Lilylui all I can add is to try to keep on top of the weeds by pulling/digging them out every time you visit your plot.

[Jimmy]

Re and fern like plants
Probably mares tail.
With weeds you can only keep on top of them. You can never totally win.
Jimmy

[DannyK]

Hello Lilylui and welcome.
The seeds of thistle, docks and other perennials lie dormant in the soil until disturbed.

Sounds like a good case for "no dig"!

Maybe you're also getting seeds blowing in from rest of field.

[Miss Mousetrousers]

To make life easier and save time, get a strimmer and go over any emerging weeds to weaken them.

[Kirk]

May not want to use chemicals but cannot see a great deal of alternatives in order to get the bed producing something soon and to get on top of the problem without a long wait.

I would go with a glyphosphate spray at 1 1/2 strength, you cannot be nice about killing weeds. The idea is they are dead not made uncomfortable. Another reason is that you need the roots to be killed off also. Often breaking them just leads to more in the future.

In the past I tended to spray once, let them die then strim, then leave the area for a couple of weeks and respray again.

Roots and seeds can remain dormant for a long time - think years in some/many cases. Plants have literally had many millions of years to evolve and develop survival strategies, they are good at it, very good.

[chris_m]

Re and fern like plants
Probably mares tail.

I had trouble (*) with horsetails last year and the year before. Almost impossible to dig out as I understand the rhizomes can be ten foot or more down.

(*) trouble as in I don't want 'em.

Last year I "patrolled" the garden every morning and nipped off any shoots as soon as I spotted them in the hope of weakening the mother rhizomes through lack of photosynthesis. As they tried to come back they did seem to be getting thinner/weaker but I don't know if that was my declaration of war or because it was getting towards the end of the season.

I've now replaced my "patch" with semi-raised beds - 18" high timbers sunk about 12-15" into the ground, then dug out to 2'6" to 3' down, lined with weed barrier fabric and refilled with most of what came out topped off with a good layer of manure and decent topsoil.

The theory is that the horsetails, if they come back, will come up around the beds instead of in them - easier to spot than when they sneak up and hide under the brassicas