[rictic]

Hello all.  What % of our time on the allotment do we all spend weeding?  This is my first full season and for me it must be around 80%.  Will the time decrease the longer I have my site?

Keep the faith.

Rictic.

[Goosegirl]

That's a difficult one - depends on how many weed seeds you have! Not being funny, but it's a case of "1 year's seeding = 7 year's weeding. Also, in the spring it's not too bad but in the warm and wet weather they will appear overnight again and again. I would say about 50% as a guess but others may differ.

[oldbean]

Weeding can be reduced by trying to have all the ground covered. If you get plants to grow so there is no exposed soil, then weeds will be reduced.

[archibtbm]

I spend about 10 mins weeding and 20 mins on other stuff weekday evenings, one advantage of raised beds that way the weekends are not spent bent over a fork, well unless a BBQ is on the go of course

[Sadgit]

I spent about 30 mins this morning weeding and about 60 mins on Sat!!!! I removed the fleece on my peas on sat and was amazed to see how many weedlings had appeared since the week before... gutted I was and sometimes the weeds almost nearly put me off having an allotment as I just don't have the time to weed constantly. I blame my 2 neighbours as they hardly tend their plots and have weeds/grass galore which spreads to mind..

[Kristen]

Gives me a great sense of satisfaction when I fill my compost Dalek with weeds .... lovely compost for next year!

[RichardA]

John refers to his comfrey patch as his compost mine so I think of weeding as harvesting compost ready for next year. Little and often, no great problem, do it as you finish as a cooling down exercise like in the gym so weeding and sweeping round the paths etc take about 5% of my time.
Weed before you have to and then you never have to.

[barney rubble]

"Weed before you have to and then you never have to"
yes 

[aelf]

My hoe is my constant companion! I have it close by most of the time when I'm on my plot. weeds are much easier to deal with when they are just seedlings. I guess about 50% at this time of year, increasing to 70% by July. After that, I'm mostly harvesting 

Aelf

[Babstreefern]

Thankfully, the plot I've just took over is a lot better than my other plot where weeds are concerned.  This one is a piece of cake.  On my last plot, after everything was in, I was weeding about 90% of the time.  On this one, its may 5% - at the moment.