[dan808]

Hey guys I have a lot of thistles dandelions and buttercup on my plot.  I've cut them down close to the ground and layered newspaper and then black plastic down and the plan was to get it ploughed and rotovate  it come april next year will I have left it long enough to kill them off or would I be encouraging new growth next year.

[dan808]

And Ill be taking any weeds out that I see

[Beetroot queen]

We blacked ours as we dug the weeds out, some people re-black once dug but we tended to plant straight away so it felt like we were getting stuff done. One portion of dads has been blacked since last november while we do the rest and some weeds still ain't dead. Roundup just seemed to make them greener. 

[wil4025]

I always use round up and add loads of compost to your beds. If you dont get rid of or kill root and you rotavate will only get worse.

[cadalot]

My brother in law and I both got plots at the same time, he rotavated and then weeded, I hand dug and weeded and he is fighting far more weeds than I am. I'm really glad I did because the short cut of using a rotavator  creates more work in the long run.

[J_B]

i first hoe out surface stuff, collect and burn. then i cover with plack plastic and let it bake for some time....every couple of weeks i dig it up a bit and cover again...

[Stree]

Only way is to hand dig with a fork and get the roots out. If you rotovate you will see just how well these things propagate from the tiniest root section. You will have the original weeds multiplied in the hundreds.

[Goosegirl]

If you don't want to use Roundup, then dig up as much as you can with a garden fork. I'd then leave it for a bit as you will have all their seeds just waiting to germinate and, when they start to come through, then you cover the area. J_B and Strees' advice (amongst others) is "bob on" and, if you leave even a tiny bit of dandelion root, it will re-grow, believe me!

[snow white]

I roughly dug over then left for a month, then got a fork in to break the soil down and pulled out the weeds then, when the soil was loose.  Now once a week all I have to do is pull the odd weed out which comes out easily and quickly.  I used to hoe but found that weeds come back so now I get down on my hands and knees and weed.  My plot doesn't have too many weeds now and I have only had it six months.