[keeper]

I took this garden over last year and it had been a garden . but not for about 8 to 10 yrs . My wife and I spent all last year clearing it with chain saw/strimmer and eventually a hayter mower I got on ebay for £100 , best £100 I ever spent !! On the veg. area, which is almost allotment size, I used Glyphosate 3 or 4 times at least until I had got rid of enough , mainly nettles, to starting planting this spring. I have where possible as the potatoes and onions and such has come out, and cleared large areas, run over it with the mower to take the tops off any weeds to stop flowering and seed being set.
My plan was to spray again this back end and maybe next spring , I am not against Glyphosate as I would not have been able to clear without it after such a long period without any management, but the mower has made a good job and what I am getting to is, if I keep cutting hard and then rotovate this back-end will it save spraying.
Sorry, to be a bit long-winded , but I wanted to point out how neglected it was.

[Nobbie]

I think it depends what your problem weeds are. It would probably work for most broadleaf weeds such as nettle, thistles and docks as they would eventually run out of energy if you did the mowing and rotavating regularly enough, but if you have couch grass or small leafed bindweed then I don't think it would be very effective as grass is quite happy with being mower and bindweed is a low growing plant. Both regrow from small bits of root.

What are your problem weeds?

[beesrus]

If you're not against glyphosphate, given it's pros and cons, then the simple answer is use it, according to it's instructions.

Contrary to some belief, glyphosphate doesn't cure a weed problem into the future, it just knocks it back half a year. There's years worth of nature there just waiting their turn. Consequently a lot of people find themselves using it on a regular basis, with all it's pitfalls. Digging and weeding is the best answer, especially where food is to be grown, but that depends on the amount of land concerned.
Apart from that, I wouldn't have thought mowing weeds was the way forward for anything, other than a temporary initial control measure prior to some form of tilling/digging.

[Aunt Sally]

I would continue to keep it under control with glyphosate and thoroughly dig over a bit at a time to remoce the perenial weed roots.

That may take you a few years depending how keen and able you are at digging.  But do NOT use a rotovator until you have dealt with the perennial weeds.

[AlaninCarlisle]

Several observations from hard experience:

When I retired, well semi-retired, four years ago, I fenced off about three-quarters of an acre of our field which had been used as animal grazing or pasture for the whole of living memory. I turned about two thirds of this into a mown paddock for my wife to use as a dog-agility course and used the rest for a large polytunnel and adjacent veg plot.

Despite fortnightly mowing, the agility course is still full of docks and plantain amongst the grass and I know that, if ever I stopped mowing , within a month they'd be competing with the grass.

The veg and polytunnel part I cleared with glyphosate at the same time, four years ago and by hand-weeding, hoeing and further applications of glyphosate have kept reasonably weed-free. However, I got lazy and failed to weed it for about a month in early summer this year. It looked as if it had never been cultivated by the time I stirred myself to clear it.

So based on my experience, mowing as a means of weed-control is pretty useless and on hitherto uncultivated land, weed seeds are still active four years after clearing it annually

[3759allen]

i'm not really a fan of rotavating to get rid of weeds, in fact i find it just spreads them around.
 
the only real answer is to keep digging as much of the weeds and their roots up, ideally when they are still quite small and haven't got as much of a root system.

obviously on a large area it is almost impossible as by time you get to the last bit it has prob been taken over by weeds. and by time you've finished you need to start again.

weed suppressant and mulching have been my preferred methods. when you're able to, take the weed suppressant up in small patches for a couple of weeks and thoroughly dig as much of the weeds out as you can and mulch over the top.

every year it should get easier and more manageable.   

everyone seems to have different views, each to their own i guess.

[Salmo]

I would use glyphosate. Let the weeds get a bit of leaf on them before you do it.

The soil will have a lot od weed seeds which will keep on coming. As the years go on they will become less.

[keeper]

Thanks for all the suggestions, as most replies seem to suggest ,I will carry on with the Glyphosate. As I said I have already sprayed it off and then let it green over, then sprayed again 4 or 5 times in 2013.
In spring this year it was covered again almost exclusively with " Mayweed " and I knocked this back , rotovated then planted up.
Nobbie the weeds this year are Docks , Mayweed and only a few Nettles with a little Grass and as I said I have been topping these as they flowered , the Mayweed especially , I have also pulled and hoed where needed. It was this that led me to believe that I could maybe get away with cutting and rotovating . I think AlaninCarlisle & 3579Allen that , as you point out, I will have to keep going till over the years it will get it better.


Thanks To All.

[JimB]

.

With me on the allotment, with the exception of (mares, horsetails) perennial weeds are not a problem, it is the annual ones that sneak in when my back is turned!

I have killed them of with the original Glyphosate, the new stuff is almost worse than useless, coloured water maybe!

As I am not bothered by grass seedlings, I use Verdone it kills weed seedlings very quickly and is much cheaper than Glyphosate or Weedol!

And I also use the trusty hoe!

Cheers!

[mumofstig]

Verdone should not be used where veg is grown it contains clopyralid, and will ruin your soil, it causes stunted growth and misformed leaves 

It is particularly damaging to peas, tomatoes and sunflowers and can render potatoes, lettuce and spinach inedible.[4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clopyralid

[shedmeister]

google white vinegar weedkiller.

[TheWhiteRabbit]

I looked into the vinegar thing and it seems that that also kills your soil. It apparently works by increasing the acidity of the soil to a point where nothing grows (including worms and other beneficial life) and takes years to neutralise.

[dadchas]

I have a similar problem on a huge and badly neglected garden. What do others think about simply waiting till the autumn and then covering the whole area with thick black plastic, then maybe rotovating in the spring before planting?

[New shoot]

It sounds like you have a bit of a mission on your hand there.

If you have perennial weeds, just covering them for the winter won't be long enough to kill them completely.  The problem with rotovating perennial weeds is that it chops the roots into small pieces and spreads them around to re-grow.

You could lift the plastic bit by bit next year and dig over the areas to remove weed roots.  Or you could see what regrows and use glyphosate, leave it to work and then rotovate 

[Salmo]

Verdone should not be used where veg is grown it contains clopyralid, and will ruin your soil, it causes stunted growth and misformed leaves 

It is particularly damaging to peas, tomatoes and sunflowers and can render potatoes, lettuce and spinach inedible.[4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clopyralid

I sometimes wonder if many of the clopyralid manure damage cases reported on here are in fact composted grass mowings where the grass has been treated with Verdone, if not direct perhaps via Council green waste schemes.