[Weston grower]

You will never rid yourself of weeds – the best you can achieve is keeping them under control.

This requires you to understand a few things…

Weeds are plants just the same as everything else you grow so as you improve growing conditions for your prize veg you also favour the weeds.

Once things start growing in the spring you need to spend time on the plot regularly. Ie once a week in early spring getting more often as the weather improves. Its easier to hoe/rake tiny seedling weeds as they start than waiting for them to develop. You need to repeat this every week.

Once a weed flowers it will make seed and scatter it. Don’t let them flower!

Once seed is in the ground it can survive for a number of years. This is where the seedlings you have to repeatedly hoe are coming from.

Eventually – after a few seasons the amount of weeds coming through will decrease as you use up the seed bank. You will still get donations of seeds from neighbours plots if they are less enthusiastic than you.

All of this sounds very time consuming but it doesn’t have to be. Once you have got on top of the weeds you need to spend  15 mins hoeing once or twice a week to keep on top of the weed seedlings. Hoeing can be very therapeutic.

So don’t give up in despair just  hoe.
Regards WG  :

[DD.]

That only covers part of the weed story, though.

What about pernicious weeds?

[Daamoot]

Thanks for the tips!  I'm looking to buy my first hoe soon to help me keep on top of the weeds(guessing a dutch hoe would be a good start?).  Would you advise hoeing over the plot and composting/binning/burning the weeds or should I leave them on the surface to rot?

[JayG]

Use a file to get a really good, sharp, bevelled edge on your new Dutch hoe - they are rarely sold with an adequate edge on them.
The idea is to hoe when at least the surface of the soil is dry (yes, I know!  ) so that the weeds are sliced off and die on the surface - if the hoe is blunt and/or the soil is wet you are more likely to only partially drag the weeds out of the ground and they are likely to re-root.

Perennial weeds should really be dug up, although hoeing will set them back and repeated hoeing may kill them eventually.

[DD.]

Get a swoe.

If you do a forum search, you'll find quite a bit of discussion on them.

They've got 3 cutting edges and are self-sharpening.

[fatcat1955]

Get a swoe.

If you do a forum search, you'll find quite a bit of discussion on them.

They've got 3 cutting edges and are self-sharpening.

How are they self sharpening?

[gremlin]

There is an alternative way of controlling weeds, which is perhaps 2 or 3 times a summer you go over the soil on your hands and knees totally digging out and removing every last weed no matter how microscopic.  The soil then lasts at least a couple of months before needing doing again.

Pick nice warm days after rain when the soil is soft and you are in no rush and I find it very relaxing working at worm's eye level. I can untangle the weeds touching or tangled up with  the plants (which are the main problem) I can also pick out the tiny bits of broken glass left to me by previous owners and can see eyeball to eyeball with the assorted parasites eating my plants.

I don't like hoeing because my soil is very stony plus I always over shoot and hit the wrong plant.  So my hoe is in the garage covered in dust and cobwebs, but I have polished smooth my daisy grubber in only 2 years. It looks 20 years old now.

[DD.]

Get a swoe.

If you do a forum search, you'll find quite a bit of discussion on them.

They've got 3 cutting edges and are self-sharpening.

How are they self sharpening?

Self sharpening blades are usually made by coating or heat treating to one side of a blade making that side extremely hard and brittle so that wear to the edge result in a new edge, just as sharp.

I've had my swoe over a year and it still cuts like a hot knife through butter.

[RichardA]

another useful tip is for beds in greenhouses and polytunnels -- keep them slightly watered when empty so weed seeds show themselves and can be hoed off. Otherwise once you put your veg seeds etc in and start watering in earnest the weeds will appear and need to be picked out by hand
As for general weeding, many good people say "weed before you have to - then you will never have to" - in other words keep on top and a bit ahead of weeds.
I use the wolfe version of the swoe and fully endorse what DD says
R