HOW TO MAKE
WEEDING more effective
ut how to make weeding Grenville Sheringham has some advice abo timing less onerous and suggests it’s all to do with The first burst of spring colour in the garden is always greeted with pleasure. Snowdrops, crocuses and daffodils are followed by bluebells and tulips, and the bare earth quickly becomes carpeted in green leaves of all shapes and sizes. But soon these are replaced by a menacing array of weeds demanding attention from the conscientious gardener. The key to managing weeds effectively is………timing (sorry about the old joke, but it’s as true about weeding as it is about comedy!). Until they start to go to seed they are not really a problem, in fact many of them can look very attractive in flower: Forget-me-nots, celandines, buttercups all bring a welcome splash of spring colour, but will soon take over the whole garden if left to spread. The trick is to catch them and deal with them at the optimum moment, before seeding. Action needs to be taken as soon as the flowers start to fade. Most should be removed using a sharp hoe, leaving just a few in each patch to provide ground cover and colour next spring. It may seem a shame to put attractive flowers on the compost heap, but by taking action now you will save yourself a lot of work in future years, and also free up space for summer flowering seedlings and plants. I have seen whole gardens overrun with celandines, even establishing themselves in the lawn, but to banish them completely would be to lose a colourful and free spring ground cover. A word about bluebells. In the right location, on a shady bank in a large garden for example, they provide a lovely splash of colour and if you leave the old leaves to die back they provide almost complete protection from later summer weeds establishing. But in a small garden they will rapidly colonise every scrap of bare earth, and will even tuck themselves under other plants in a border. So be ruthless - decide where you want bluebells and where you don’t, and dig up all those you don’t want. This can be done any time in autumn or winter, so no need to waste valuable weeding time unless they are in the way of new planting. As spring moves into summer, the cavalry of the weed world 58
start to appear, especially in the larger garden – willow herb, field poppies, herb Robert, campion. They look very attractive in a large border, but again the key is timing. Enjoy the flowers when they are new, but be sure to remove them before fully in flower or they will soon commandeer large areas of the garden for their offspring. But the real garden villains are the deep-rooted perennials – bindweed, ground elder, dandelions, docks to name but a few. These often appear at the time when you are busiest in the garden, so get left for another day. But if you at least give them a jab at the base with a sharp hoe, that should stop them flowering and spreading. In late autumn the earth starts to loosen its tight grip on plant roots, and it becomes much easier to spade or fork out the roots. Hopefully having achieved a whole season of effective weed control, there is still much you can do in the winter to prepare for next year’s crop of weeds. Firstly you need to go back to those deep-rooted perennials and dig out as much root as you can. Bindweed and ground elder are better tackled with a garden fork so you can get out as much as possible of the tangled root mass. Then you need to cover the bare earth with a thick layer of mulch. Garden compost is ideal if you have access to large quantities, or buy in spent mushroom compost or similar – whatever is available locally. The immediate effect on a mixed border is, in my opinion, very pleasing – shrubs and winter flowers are highlighted against the dark background, and emerging leaves and plants are shown off to good effect. But a major advantage of mulch is it gives you a head start in the spring, as you can clearly spot weeds as they emerge. And it is so much easier to hoe a loose layer of mulch than compacted bare soil. After a few years of mulching, your borders will develop a fine crumbly layer of topsoil that will be much easier to keep weed-free. So don’t let the weeds take over – work with them and with the seasons, and enjoy the contribution they can make in the garden.
Country Gardener