Getting rid of weeds!

[Mr Bones]

A friendly allotment neighbour lent me what he called a Front Hoe, it worked wonders on our sandy soil, a single pass between rows neatly chopped the weeds just below the surface
It was just an oblong metal sleeve attached behind a wheel to two handles, apparently there is another attachment which can be fitted if a deeper cut is needed
It seemed such a simple and effective tool, I would love to buy one but can't seem to find one on the internet, can anyone help?

Sounds like a wheel hoe Mahsleb, if you're handy you can make your own.
This will be the first season for us after moving plots and as it had been ran down and neglected for the best part of five years the newly cleared ground is full of weed seeds. I take the attitude each seed can only germinate once and using a stirrup hoe, go over the whole 500 square metres every week or more often if needed. Any roots that were missed in the initial digging are dug out and left in the drowning barrel.

[alldigging]

I do take solace in the fact weeds are growing as it indicates the soil is healthy. If the weeds grow then that means all is well with the soil.
I've been digging out those with big roots and just pulling out those with little roots.
I'm going to try and mulch everything this year and see how that helps keep the numbers down.

[Two_Sheds]

I have very few weeds now that I Chop n Drop. There's been a small explosion of speedwell this week, but it's easy to pull up

[Martin H]

TS, what do you do about the ground huggers that don't really "chop", like the annual grasses? Pull them up and leave them on the surface?

[Allotmenthacker]

I'm trying a combination of optimism, trying to keep the ground covered and hoeing when I can.

I've also left some nettle and comfrey in deliberately - for eating and making fertiliser.

But failing that I will use glyphosate to keep them under control.

Tips for dealing with weeds | AllotmentHacker

[Feral007]

I'm another smotherer. I have raised beds. Just put down cardboard on the ground and build on that. The oldest raised garden is the best still. I'm about to attack one of the front gardens. The dirt compacted, and then the mulch we put on grew madly, so it will get a load of manure on it shortly and then cardboard down on top. Can't manure untill we've the cardboard ready as the dogs love the stuff, nothing like a nice crunchy horse scone on a sunny winter's day.

We also used spring onions on the edges of the garden beds as a barrier to grass. It did slow it down so you had time to pull up a piece as it went over, and then chop n drop. If there's weeds coming up then there's not enough mulch

[JustPotteringAbout]

I pull the short-rooted willowherb Chamerion angustifolium, and ephemerals eg Ragwort (Senecio jacobaea)Groundsel [S. vulgaris] as separate tasks so they don't get mixed. Willowherbs get chopped (leaves eaten)and composted, the ragwort is burned and landfilled.
Dandelion I dig out with a small spade. I find a plasterer's leaf and square useful for untangling to find the stems of and gently loosening the roots the common chickweed (Stellaria media); for separating the couch grass [Elymus repens] from perennial roots and for cutting the grassy weeds between slabs.
Many of the weeds are quite tasty ... first thing I did after identifying them was check to see if they were edible.
Neighbour's garden is chock full of various dandelion [Taraxacum spp], perennial ryegrass [Lolium perenne] Welsh poppy [Meconopsis cambrica], Creeping buttercup [Ranunculus repens] and various other weeds that are seeding here. I was going to covertly slice them all thinking they wouldn;t notice because they were never in the garden, but yesterday a couple of deckchairs were in the garden, so there's no getting away with it now.
Dad cultivated dandelion unenclosed for someone's rabbits. so although they are removed I'm finding young specimens around the garden. The soil is not that heavy, just there must have been a huge propagation ofseeds.

[mothhawk]

A friendly allotment neighbour lent me what he called a Front Hoe, it worked wonders on our sandy soil, a single pass between rows neatly chopped the weeds just below the surface
It was just an oblong metal sleeve attached behind a wheel to two handles, apparently there is another attachment which can be fitted if a deeper cut is needed
It seemed such a simple and effective tool, I would love to buy one but can't seem to find one on the internet, can anyone help?

As Mr Bones says it's a wheel hoe - goggle wheeled garden hoe and lots of sites will pop up. Hope you can make your own though, the prices took my breath away!

[mothhawk]

My garden is very small and on the "flower" side everything has filled most of the available space, so weeds don't really have a chance. Any small patches of bare ground that appear I sprinkle a few limnanthes seeds to fill it and cover the ground.

On the "veg" side, last weekend I was on hands and knees inside my brassica cage with hammer and nails adding some corner braces to make it more sturdy, and found myself hoeing out some small speedwell seedlings between the cabbage plants with the claw end of the hammer Worked very well too

[Two_Sheds]

what are your favoured methods of weed control?

I tend to leave them to grow, only pulling them up just before they go to flower. Weeds = green manures = goodness for the soil.

I chop them up and drop them on the soil, as a mulch.

These pics were taken today at Holt Hall walled garden. As you can see, the veg has grown to perfectly respectable sizes despite being smothered in weeds.

[ButternutSquash]

Each year hedge and shrub trimmings go into the garden shredder and then onto the ornamental beds and under the front hedge as mulch. It saves a trip to the dump, suppresses weeds, and eventually improves the soil and feeds the plants.

Generally weeds are not much problem as long as they are removed before they flower. When I started on my garden, I used glyphosate to kill perennial weeds, and make sure the roots were dead. Now I usually hand weed. Field bindweed is still in the veg plot, so when it appears, I put a pot over the top. After a few weeks it is glyphosated if there are no plants nearby, or pulled out otherwise. Once crops are harvested, the roots down to 6" are pulled out. It will take years to remove as I know there are very thick deep roots established over at least 45 years. I removed huge amounts of root when I went down a metre when preparing the area. Bramble was dug out, loads of roots pulled up. It still sometimes pops up, and is hand weeded. Nettles and oregano were a problem this year due to composting horse muck from the local lanes. Never again.

I avoid prolific seeders such as teasel. Not worth the bother.

The big problem in the lawn is weed grasses.