[G4XLO]

Hi all - thanks for the replies to my post re the carrots - very positive replies and grateful for all the advice on the forum!  I have another question to ask - we are growing some vegetables in beds and have noticed that there are weeds growing at the same time - whats the best practice here?  Would it be to simply remove as many of the weeds as possible by hand or to perhaps dig over and place soil on top?  As ever many thanks for the use of the site

Kev and Selina

[Pescador]

I'd try and pull them out as soon as they appear, as it causes less disturbance to your crop than pulling out big weeds!

[RJR_38]

Yup - hands and knees time I'm afraid...

[Salmo]

Get a hoe.

Just run a hoe through between the plants to chop the weeds off. If you do this on a regular basis when the weeds are tiny, say once a week, you will have no problem.

There are two basic types of hoe. The crooked draw hoe that you pull towards you, and the flat type, dutch hoe, that you work with a push action. The dutch hoe is best foe small weeds, the crooked type if you leave it too long and the weeds get bigger.

[DD.]

Get a swoe (you may need to look that up!).Chops weeds forwards, backwards and sideways. They don't stnd a chance!

[ptarmigan]

A swoe, a hoe or a hand hoe all help!

If plants are too close together for that then you'll have to get on your hands and knees.  Putting some mulch down after weeding is a really good idea to prevent more weeds happening and make it easier to pull out new weeds.   Could be anything, grass cuttings, seaweed, compost, manure (well rotted), rotted leaves, cardboard, newspaper.   

[sunshineband]

Yes, making sure the rows are far enough apart to be able to use tools to clear the majority of weeds is a very good point! Then handweed along the row to remove any right next to the seedlings, and never let them get very big as then the roots come out without disturbance, like pescador mentioned

[Growster...]

Yes, making sure the rows are far enough apart to be able to use tools to clear the majority of weeds is a very good point! Then handweed along the row to remove any right next to the seedlings, and never let them get very big as then the roots come out without disturbance, like pescador mentioned

Good point Sunny!

I usually make the mistake of planting vegetables too close together, as funnily enough, they sometimes grow too big, like the onions did for once this year!

Marshalls used to sell a very small sharp chisel-shaped hoe with a blade only an inch and a half wide. It saved the day...

I suppose another point to make is that if one is hoeing kneeling down, there has to be room between the rows as well! Many a leek has been crushed by an errant Wellington while weeding the carrots...

[AnneB]

Yes, you have to keep weeding regularly to keep on top of things. 

[Wiltshire Worms]

My policy is that I deal with all the weeds whilst digging and also keep the hoe going between the rows, but to deal with the weeds that grow in the actual row, if Mrs wiltshire worm has been very good, she's allowed to do the tedious fiddly close weeding, and very good at it she is. If it was in the Olympics she would win gold.

The downside of our paranoia attitude to weeds is the leg pulling when the other plot holders see 1 growing, but I can live with that