[A YM]

Someone in the allotment got a plot for 7 months and he had a job 7 days a week. He was phoned to go to tidy up the plot, same happened to a doctor just coming out of saving patients. I was horrified as allotmenteering shouldn't be a source of stress. Please tell me your fool-proof way to avoid weeds taking over, especially the cinquefeuilles (?) bind weeds please? I'm looking for the most economical and aesthetically pleasing way!

[Blewit]

We run our 500sq metre plot as no-dig. Most beds are mulched with home-made compost, a few beds with composted wood chippings and pathways with fresher wood chippings. The whole plot is kept completely covered with mulch at all times and weeding is minimal to say the least. That said, a large part of our gardening time is spent making compost. Maybe take a look at Charles Dowding, he has plenty of vids on YouTube and amongst the more recent ones are how this year he turned a weedy horse paddock into usable veg beds. We manage our plot slightly different to CD but for us the no-till method is a whole lot easier than digging, weeding, watering etc.

[rowlandwells]

around two years ago I had a spell in hospital and was unable to do to much on the allotments for several months now I'm not in the no dig club so I'm still gardening the old dig your plot way or in my case ploughing the plots

so when the weeds started to take over I sprayed both plots with roundup that kept the plots clean not upsetting my fellow plot holders with a mas of weeds thankfully its rid us of all the bind weed although we still get the annual weeds that's not a problem

but if your not a chemical user then its got to be black plastic or hand weeding ?

[steven c]

i am in blewits camp we spread a layer of compost[home made] and manure in late autumn over each bed
except where we will grow carrots  we also use woodchip for the paths our weeding is minimal  other plotholders have given up because they cant seem to get on top of the weeds  this works for us i would
not go back to how we used to do it but each to their own good luck with it all

[Hampshire Hog]

Interesting question I weeded my bed with spring onions and leeks a couple of days ago as it was infested with numerous weeds. One thing I wondered was whether I would have done better to have planted my seedlings through black plastic. Be interested to know what people think of this approach as at present I just hand weed.
Though I also use chemicals for some really troublesome problems. HH

[GraciesGran]

I've used weed membrane in the past.  Thick layer of farmyard manure covered with weed membrane and left to brew over the winter.  The result was relatively easy to dig, still some bind seed but as nuclear bombs not allotment friendly there was nothing I could do.

[Nobbie]

I find a hoe to be remarkably cost effective. Cost me £20 years ago and needs no maintenance.

[Goosegirl]

I like the no-dig option because you're not bringing new weed seeds to the surface which then germinate. If you spread the area with a mulch such as spent mushroom compost it will suppress any weed growth, supply nutrients to the soil, and encourage worms to aerate the soil. I do resort to using a weed killer at times because my garden had lots of mares tail ( ) and some convolvulus that's spread from next door's garden. Nobbie's post has a lot to be said for it as annual weeds are easily stopped in their tracks by a judicious application of a sharpened hoe!