I used a gas wand on persistent perennial weeds including those you mention, after the admittedly back breaking work of digging over my hard-packed heavy clay to create raised beds. It’s quite effective for spot-weeding but not for a whole allotment. You don’t have to burn off the whole plant, just scorch it, it weakens and dies and it won’t affect the worms below the surface. Not sure if this would be considered ecological but I did avoid using pesticides...
Actually, there were hardly any worms in my compacted, weed-infested soil, but the precious few I came across I just lifted out and put in the freshly dug bits. Now my soil is teeming with them. They love the newly dug earth, made much more workable by digging in lots and lots of manure and compost. Think about digging, mulching etc as essential graft to create luxury accommodation and fine dining for your worms
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
Hi we've had our allotment a year& as soon as we got it covered anything except plants we wanted to keep with black plastic, over the last few weeks I've explored under it& found I can pull out long runners& huge clumps of weed roots, as we uncover patches we're putting down cardboard& planting in holes between it for deeper rooted plants& this next couple of weeks plan to put more down cover with compost& sow on top, I usually have 2kids& a unenthusiastic husband in tow& am not doing too badly even though I always get pulled away after 2or3houts!
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Actually, there were hardly any worms in my compacted, weed-infested soil, but the precious few I came across I just lifted out and put in the freshly dug bits. Now my soil is teeming with them. They love the newly dug earth, made much more workable by digging in lots and lots of manure and compost. Think about digging, mulching etc as essential graft to create luxury accommodation and fine dining for your worms