[ThePragmatist]

Hi,

I got married and went away on Honeymoon. Sadly I didn't let the weeds know so they could go easy on me.

What was getting under control is now amazingly overgrown!

I have tried to use weed control fabric before, the plants happily grew on underneath. This time I have roughly cleared off the surface vegatation, covered it with a layer of weed control fabric and am using a coupe of inches of leaf mould as a mulch on top. Should this be enough to kill off the weeds or do I need to do more? I am mostly dealing with docks and dandelions as well as enthusiastic grasses.

[compostqueen]

Ah I'm glad to see you're going to be pragmatic 

Covered with heavy duty sheet mulch they'll die off as long as it's secured as it will whip up and blow away, along with your leafmould

I say heavy duty as the lighter stuff is a pain in the neck and weeds will grow through it plus it rucks up as it's too thin.  You could lay down cardboard on top of the weeds and then lay the mulching fabric.  I sometimes use full thickness newspaper under my mulch if I'm short of cardboard.  When you've laid your mulch don't walk on it. Cordon it off as you don't want to compact the soil underneath by trampling over it, which is a temptation and you can end up taking short cuts over it

[ThePragmatist]

Ah I'm glad to see you're going to be pragmatic 

Covered with heavy duty sheet mulch they'll die off as long as it's secured as it will whip up and blow away, along with your leafmould

I say heavy duty as the lighter stuff is a pain in the neck and weeds will grow through it plus it rucks up as it's too thin.  You could lay down cardboard on top of the weeds and then lay the mulching fabric.  I sometimes use full thickness newspaper under my mulch if I'm short of cardboard.  When you've laid your mulch don't walk on it. Cordon it off as you don't want to compact the soil underneath by trampling over it, which is a temptation and you can end up taking short cuts over it

I hadn't thought about securing it, thanks for that tip. Given the amount of rocks I keep pulling out of the ground, I think I should be able to secure everything.

[Christine]

I don't usually resort to anything costly but with docks and dandelions I am very generous. I do believe in a pint of roundup or two as required.

[ThePragmatist]

I don't usually resort to anything costly but with docks and dandelions I am very generous. I do believe in a pint of roundup or two as required.

My allotment site is organic so that option is not open to me.

[compostqueen]

You can put the glyphos on a gloved hand and apply it to the plant that way rather than spray indiscriminately.  You can't of course but it does mean you have to hoe rather a lot, which is a good thing once you've got on top of the problem.  Covering them up will kill them off in time so patience is required too.  Or you have to get down on your hands and knees and do some close weeding, or get the thuggish stuff out with a fork.  After a good downpour the thistles etc come up more easier    Happy days 

[Beklet]

Ah yes, you can't go away

Where the hell did my post go? Grrr. I was going for the lasagne bed thing - I have a patch covered in cardboard, awaiting grass clippings and compost, with a topping of black plastic sheeting. The other large weedy patch I'm going to use glyphosate on, then cover with weed suppressant and some bricks. I'll see which works best...

Seriously, had 2 weeks away, with work, weddings and the like, and the thistles in my carrot bed were chest high!!

[Growster...]

Apart from the pleasure of being stabbed a squillion times, there's no better weeding sensation than getting a thistle out by pulling it up and achieving a 7" root into the bargain...

The main root is somewhere down near Adelaide, so digging becomes somewhat precarious!

;0)

[compostqueen]

They come up easier after rain so get in quick    Even a tiny thistle has a huge root 

[yorkiegal]

All my thistles were sprayed with glycosophate. It's lovely to see the * die. With the rest of my plot I'm committed to just hoeing it.

[greenthing]

I'm organic too and am doing a combination of very slow and methodical digging with the rest either being mown regularly or covered in plastic or many layers of card. It got away from us during April/May with all the wet weather...but some hard graft in between the rainy days in June has paid off and it's mostly back under control again.

Covering well for extended periods seems to be working for me. I've just uncovered a section that had been left covered with plastic for over a year and it's pretty much weed free. All it needs is a spot of light digging to pull out the dead and dying weed roots, a crop of green manure to clean it over the autumn/winter and it''l be ready for planting in the spring with v little effort

The bits that I have dug I've mulched with compost to stop weed regrowth in between the crops or while I wait for seedlings to grow. It's working so far and cut down on the amount of maintenance I've had to do on that section so I can concentrate on the bits that still need bringing back from the wild.