[Bigbadfrankie]

hi Purrplebat i have been playing at this allotmenteering for over 5 years it takes ages to get proper results that's what makes it such fun. ( i like your portrait) its much harder than making a living from the land!!! good luck

[Axe Victim]

Sorry Axe but have you had a bang to the head? "weeding is part of the fun" sorry but if nuclear grade weeding tools were available I would be first in the que, its a chore I and most people I talk to hate, I see em as the second worse nightmare in allotmenteering.

A weed is 'just a plant in the wrong place'....I'm growing all sorts of things that could be called weeds (like aliums) all over my lotty...if they're in the right place...they ain't a weed....we cultivate dandelions for the tortoises and the guinea pig!

 :twisted:  

[purplebat]

I do agree that a weed is just a plant in the wrong place, so does that mean you never have to weed? in which case doesn't that kind of defeat the object of weeding being fun?  :?:

[Aidy]

A weed! Imho is a plant that extracts vital nutrients from the ground, suffocates other plants around them. If I had criters as your good self Axe I would perhaps have a dedicated weed bed, I most certainly would not have them growing/competeing with my Veg, I would love to potter and sit in full sun enjoying the sight of my veges grow instead of spending hours culling all the weeds , so to me a weed is not a plant growing in the wrong place but a parasite on the allotment.

[Zak the Rabbit]

weeds are actually the best plants around, from the point of view of their success - they grow healthily and reproduce without any help, they are very successfull, top of the old evolution pathway,

the big problem is that what we want to grow isnt as good at growing! if our crops grew as effectively as weeds do we wouldnt have to weed at all, they would just outcompete them!

[Trillium]

I was a weed detester myself until I came across an article in Bob Flowerdew's  No Work Garden pg 47 where he creates a very fertile garden slurry from weeds, even bindweed (have more than enough to spare to anyone). Bet it also smells less wicked than comfrey slurry. This summer I'll be setting up a special fermentation bucket for the copious amounts of weeds saying goodbye to my gardens. My comfrey transplants are still sucking their thumbs so the weeds will have to do for this year.  

[SkipRat]

Whats your first nightmare Aidy?

[noshed]

That bloke that did "Lady in Red" probably

[milkman]

I'm a block person meself, growing as I do on fixed beds.

Weeds are full of good stuff and make a valuable addition to the compost heap, before drowning if they're annual weeds, after drowning if they're perennial like creeping buttercups or bindweed - I never mind doing a spot of weeding with my handfork - it allows me to daydream.....