Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: LivvyW on March 01, 2009, 20:38

Title: Do you have a weeding 'strategy'
Post by: LivvyW on March 01, 2009, 20:38
With my head stuck into weeding my herb bed today, i wondered if you more experienced growers have set habits when you tackle a bit of weeding.

If perennial weeds need to be burnt or drowned, but annuals can go on the heap, do you have two buckets and separate them as you go along?    Or do all the perennials first then just hoe the annuals.

Come on tell me your secrets. How do you like to weed?
Title: Re: Do you have a weeding 'strategy'
Post by: mumofstig on March 01, 2009, 21:11
As long as we're not talking about first weeding when starting a plot.............

If it grows hoe it,  do it often enough and even the perenials bite the dust, but you have to wait till it's quite dry to hoe.
So if it's wet and i can reach it from the path i just pull as much as i can. If i can't reach... it waits till it's dry :lol: :lol:
Title: Re: Do you have a weeding 'strategy'
Post by: Bigbadfrankie on March 01, 2009, 21:41
my strategy is to send in my wife armed with a hoe. as for the compost bin they all go in and never come out.

Some good stuff on the deffra organic site about weeding
Title: Re: Do you have a weeding 'strategy'
Post by: andreadon on March 01, 2009, 22:14
hoe for the ones i can get to, gloves for the nettles.
i put all the perennials in a big pile - the border of my garden is waste/woodland so the pile's in there to rot away, but my mum always made a pile and then my dad would set fire to it.
i like hoe-ing. gives me a great deal of satisfaction!
Title: Re: Do you have a weeding 'strategy'
Post by: Yorkie on March 01, 2009, 22:17
I dig out those perennials which I can and take them to the tip after removing all the soil from the roots.

Hoe off annuals.

And once a year nuke those perennials which get away from me e.g. couch grass despite being strimmed  ;)
Title: Re: Do you have a weeding 'strategy'
Post by: Ice on March 01, 2009, 22:19
Dig and remove perennials.  Put them in the council green bin.  Hoe, hoe, and hoe again.  After five years of this I no longer have any problem with stubborn weeds.  Oh, and the occasional use of glyphosate on the weeds that try to creep in from next door.
Title: Re: Do you have a weeding 'strategy'
Post by: clive f on March 01, 2009, 22:57
same as ice hoe hoe hoe and hoe again ;)
Title: Re: Do you have a weeding 'strategy'
Post by: Ice on March 01, 2009, 23:04
Never thought I would take up hoeing at my time in life. :lol:  But the exercise is keeping me fit. ;)
Title: Re: Do you have a weeding 'strategy'
Post by: woodburner on March 02, 2009, 00:13
I never thought about it before really but I do tend to seperate the perennials out as I weed, making two heaps.
AT home there's not much perennial stuff so it goes onthe bonfire, but there's too much to waste at the lottie so it goes in bags or buckets of water to rot down.
Title: Re: Do you have a weeding 'strategy'
Post by: wajo on March 02, 2009, 04:17
Weeding at my place is called 'feeding the bunnies' - I do a little bit every day (except in the summer  when there's not always  enough weeds).  It doesn't seem hard work that way.  Anything that survives the bunnies without  being turned into manure  gets to take its chances in the compost pile (more accurately called the 'scrap heap').
Title: Re: Do you have a weeding 'strategy'
Post by: Gwiz on March 02, 2009, 05:13
When I first got the allotment, I sprayed with round up three times, about a month apart.
since then, I've done as everyone else, and hoed every week. If I get any perenial weeds germinating, I lift it out with a hand fork, and the couch that creeps in from the grass edge, is spayed with round up as and when it needs it. :)
Title: Re: Do you have a weeding 'strategy'
Post by: Rampant_Weasel on March 02, 2009, 05:17
i go for close quarters combat with a handfork technique, works everytime :)
Title: Re: Do you have a weeding 'strategy'
Post by: Christine on March 02, 2009, 08:23
A swoe is my tool of choice and if the weather is sunny the weeds seem quite happy to die if left roots up.  Otherwise they are turned into the compost heap.

At the moment there is a major infestation of creeping buttercup and dandelion at the foot of the hedges that surround the plot where weeding utensils and spade will not go deep enough. These are going to be treated with generosity - a pint of roundup at regular intervals over the season to discourage them.
Title: Re: Do you have a weeding 'strategy'
Post by: Beejay on March 02, 2009, 10:23
Hoe, Hoe, Hoe. :tongue2:
Title: Re: Do you have a weeding 'strategy'
Post by: Oscar Too on March 02, 2009, 11:51
Hoe, Hoe, Hoe. :tongue2:

Plus one.
Title: Re: Do you have a weeding 'strategy'
Post by: Stripey_cat on March 02, 2009, 12:34
Hoe for annual weed seedlings; larger annual weeds and grass go in the compost heap.  Perennial roots go on a concrete path to dry out (the tops go in the compost), and either get burned and the ash spread on the soil, or soaked in water to make liquid fertiliser.
Title: Re: Do you have a weeding 'strategy'
Post by: crowndale on March 02, 2009, 13:08
I rarely hoe.  I am a strange sad little creature and actulaly enjoy digging the things out!  Or rather losening the soil and pulling them out.  and dig out the perrenial roots at the start and end of the season.  But it does mean I am going to have to elave more room in between plants to allow me to do this or it is very hard work.  Hate weeds.
Title: Re: Do you have a weeding 'strategy'
Post by: jolly jen on March 02, 2009, 14:49
i hoe and hand pick them out then burn them,,im very fussy  dont want them coming back
Title: Re: Do you have a weeding 'strategy'
Post by: RichardA on March 02, 2009, 16:11
I am sure everyone knows the saying ""If you hoe before you have to then you never have to"
Keep the hoe handy and walk with it when ever you go up the plot.
Some one said on Larkrise to Candleford recently that his dad said you had to tickle the ground to keep it awake meaning regular hoeing was crucial -- nothing changes
R
Title: Re: Do you have a weeding 'strategy'
Post by: Noah'strolly on March 02, 2009, 16:23
i go for close quarters combat with a handfork technique, works everytime :)
Me too, well mostly - I hit too much of the crop when I hoe!
Title: Re: Do you have a weeding 'strategy'
Post by: GreenOwl on March 02, 2009, 16:30
I've been trying to hoe more this last year but if the weeds are already up I hand-weed with 2 buckets.  One for the compost heap, one for perennial weeds and stones.
Title: Re: Do you have a weeding 'strategy'
Post by: jolly jen on March 03, 2009, 15:14
I am sure everyone knows the saying ""If you hoe before you have to then you never have to"
Keep the hoe handy and walk with it when ever you go up the plot.
Some one said on Larkrise to Candleford recently that his dad said you had to tickle the ground to keep it awake meaning regular hoeing was crucial -- nothing changes
R


yeah i heard that saying as well ,,,,,,,
i thought it was a great  saying
Title: Re: Do you have a weeding 'strategy'
Post by: Aunt Sally on March 03, 2009, 15:47
Weeds - never let them see a Sunday !
Title: Re: Do you have a weeding 'strategy'
Post by: Swing Swang on March 03, 2009, 23:24
I'm a signed up member of the hoe hoe hoe brigade, but follow this with mulch mulch mulch.

SS
Title: Re: Do you have a weeding 'strategy'
Post by: Paul Plots on March 06, 2009, 19:11
Hoe, hoe....quite agree. ;)

Bought a brilliant onion hoe a couple of years ago....old I guess. It has a curved handle and curved blade almost spear shaped. It is brilliant. I've not seen one quite like it before or since. Makes me wonder if it might be hand forged. Great for very close-up work when it is warm enough to sit around the edge of the rows and relax (summer holidays!).
Title: Re: Do you have a weeding 'strategy'
Post by: corynsboy on March 06, 2009, 20:25
I mulch as much as possible.  Bark and wood chippings between the fruit bushes and fruit trees.  Manure on open ground where suitable.  Gravel between the herbs in the herb patch (pea shingle is excellent value at £1.25 per bag @ B&Q).  Keeping paths clear really helps too.

Then I grab a file and sharpen my hoe and I hoe.  Everyone says it.  Little and often as soon as it is dry enough.  It's not so much a strategy as permanent fixture on the to do list.  If in doubt, hoe.

I love Aunt Sally's moto.  Weeds. Never let 'em see a Sunday.  Excellent.

Nothing clears my usually foggy Sunday morning head like a trip to the plot and a hour or two of hoeing plugged into the ipod.
Title: Re: Do you have a weeding 'strategy'
Post by: RichardA on March 06, 2009, 22:30
So what is good music to hoe to ???????????????????
R
(Johnie Cash's Walk the line  maybe ?? - hey its late thats all I could think of)
Title: Re: Do you have a weeding 'strategy'
Post by: Bombers on March 06, 2009, 22:48
So what is good music to hoe to ???????????????????
R
(Johnie Cash's Walk the line  maybe ?? - hey its late thats all I could think of)
Derrrr...... rY0WxgSXdEE ::) :lol:
Title: Re: Do you have a weeding 'strategy'
Post by: mumofstig on March 07, 2009, 13:11
surely it's got to be 'Hi hoe... i hoe... it's off to work i go' :lol:
Title: Re: Do you have a weeding 'strategy'
Post by: Paul Plots on March 07, 2009, 15:15
So what is good music to hoe to ???????????????????
R
(Johnie Cash's Walk the line  maybe ?? - hey its late thats all I could think of)
Derrrr...... rY0WxgSXdEE ::) :lol:

I like it! But how about:  Hi ho silver lining.....

IsGDNG2Cpbg (not sure the link will work but you get the idea!) ::)