Yours in Green

Yours in Green is a garden blog for not-so-green thumbs and keen gardeners alike. It's written in layman’s terms with a dash of humour thrown in.

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Posts with Tag:weeds

29 June 2012 ,13:08 Weeds - the bane of every gardener's existence

By Jody Rigby

Excluding the handful of people who actually find weeding cathartic, most of us would prefer to nip them in the bud before they become a problem, especially with a bit of rain about. The soil is soft and makes for easier removal.

It’s important to know there are different control methods for different weeds as they all have different growth patterns, food storage and even root systems. So it’s better to approach them individually and get rid of them right the first time (or second and third time for some nasties). Some have bulbs or storage systems under ground (like onion weed, nut grass and fishbone fern), whilst others have millions of seeds that hitch a ride on your clothes or the dog like farmer's friends.

Any soil left exposed (without mulch) is a breeding ground for weeds. Many seeds are dispersed by wind or birds/animals (which digest berries or fruits and seeds are excreted on the other side with some free manure for that extra boost) so it’s best to either plant out a bed fully or mulch any areas of bare earth. And it’s important to get rid of weeds before they have a chance to flower and set seed which could mean hundreds of weed seedlings popping up close by.

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18 March 2011 ,14:30 Weeds - every gardener's worst enemy

By Jody Rigby

Weeds are the bain of every gardeners existence, and excluding the handful of people who actually find weeding cathartic, most of us would prefer to nip them in the bud before they become a problem.

It’s important to know there are different control methods for different weeds as they all have different growth patterns, food storage and even root systems, so it’s better to approach them individually and get rid of them right the first time (or second and third time for some nasties).

Any soil left exposed (without mulch) is a breeding ground for weeds. Many seeds are dispersed by wind or birds/animals, (including us), so it’s best to either plant out a bed fully or mulch any areas of bare earth, and it’s important to get rid of weeds before they have a chance to flower and set seed which could mean hundreds of weed seedlings popping up close by.

Try a butter knife to get weeds out from between cracks and if you don’t want to use a glyphosate based poison like round up, trying pouring boiling water over them or even handfulls of salt.

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Jody Rigby
Jody Rigby is a well-known horticulturist and TV presenter.

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A constant learning curve, gardening is all about trial and error. Knowledge grows from sharing information between friends, passing down through generations, or just getting it wrong a few times before you get it right. It's about getting grubby outside and aching from digging too much, but then feeling that fall away when you get your first flower or prize fruit off a new tree... and getting so excited you need to tell everyone.

Yours in Green is everything I’ve learnt so far - what to do when, how to do it right the first time, and of course, some frustrations along the way and how to remedy them.

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