[RookieJim]

As i'm slowly making progress with the plot, the days are getting shorter and colder so I really must do what I can before winter really sets in. The questions is though: what do I do?

Looking at some of my neighbours' plots, they simply seem to be roughly dug over. Most of them have been dug over without any of the grass removed and dug up weeds just in a pile. Is this normal?

I thought I'd need to thoroughly dig over, weed, remove all the grass THEN leave it for the winter to break down?

What's best? And I hope this isn't another of my stupid newbie questions 

Jim

[mumofstig]

Most of the annual grass and weeds will die off over winter anyway, so they may not think it's worth the effort to remove it.....it's like digging in green manure

it's a different matter if you have perennial/deeprooted weeds - you should dig them out.

[angelavdavis]

If, like us, you have couch grass on your plot, it is worth stripping out any plants and weeds you may come across while digging. 

I don't do loads of digging as I try to stick to a no dig approach and use lasagne layers on my beds over winter. 

However, when hubby cleared the squash beds yesterday, there was a load of couch root under them, so he ended up with quite a job clearing - hopefully it will be worth the work, if left, they would have probably more or less continued growing over winter and we would be left with a problem come spring.

[mumofstig]

Couch is just one example of the prennial weeds you should be digging out