How you weed will also be influenced by your desire or otherwise for plants to self seed. If you do want self seeding then hoeing isn’t really possible as you will inevitably be hoeing off the plants you want as well as any weeds.
I have lots of self seeding plants so all my weeding is by hand and I usually wait until they are big enough to weed easily and it’s not too fiddly. I also prefer the soil covered than bare so will sometimes allow weeds to grow for a bit longer and if pretty let them flower (just make sure you don’t let them go to seed). Disturbing the soil effects it structure and having good ground cover is just another version of the no dig approach. At this stage in the season, the plants I do want are out competing all the weeds so there is little if any bare soil for them to establish in.
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
I always thought that the reason not to hoe in wet weather is because the soil tends to stick to the weedlet roots, which allows them to survive and re-establish. In dry weather, they come out fairly 'clean' and just shrivel up. I may have misunderstood.
If you have clay soil, the wet/dry point when a hoed weed will die is much harder to hit, the soil being very sticky until about 15 minutes before it transforms into a brick that the hoe just bounces off. I generally end up using a hand fork. Happily, I find it quite soothing, but it does take longer than hoeing. I also try to mulch every year, to limit the quantity. I can hoe my veg beds because I've spent 10 years diligently improving the soil every year. The flower beds are less well done so far.
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Thank you Mike Allen - that's interesting about the weeding on a larger scale with a hoe turned over, like a chisel. I have started my hoe education and the first video I saw was doing that, almost parallel to ground. and it said to sharpen it and it works even better apparently.
Thank you Fire. But doesn't the level of soil go up and up if you mulch a lot, such that the soil will be spilling over into the lawn or ending up a higher level than the lawn? I guess it depends on how thick the mulch is and how often it's done. I've read recommendations for very thick mulch.
Loxley that cane sounds ingenious. I am learning a lot about how important hoeing must be, and that it's a great way to weed small spaces, with B3 with her wallpaper scraper and you with your invention.
Very good point about self seeding @Butterfly66 I hadn't thought of that. Hmmmm...
I think I will still probably hoe but I need to be aware of self seeders. For areas with self seeders I can do it by hand and maybe let them grow a bit first.
That's another interesting idea, having plants I do want, to crowd out the weeds. That's a very different approach to single plants dotted around in bare soil. I wonder if 'cover' plants that are pretty and easy to grow/spread are a good way to fill in bare soil.
Disturbing the soil structure - this is what I was concerned about, if I weed too deeply with a claw. That's pretty much what I was doing when I was weeding and not knowing what I was doing. I was really turning the soil over. And in some areas with oxalis, I destroyed the soil structure by digging right down over whole areas to get their root structures out, many inches deep. But I am glad the oxalis is out properly, and I hope I can now leave that soil to restructure itself.
So it is good to leave the soil almost as one 'block', and then just hoe over by skimming the surface a lot of the time, to get young weeds down (not worrying about roots)?
@raisingirl you make it sound comically difficult to weed a clay soil! What's the best thing to mulch with? I'm wondering about doing that (after weeding of course). Do you just leave that mulch, or do you ever dig it in?
You only need to worry about roots of perennial weeds. Annuals won’t regrow from any root left behind. Mulch breaks down over time so you don’t end up with sky high borders. You need to leave it as a surface layer if it’s to act as a mulch, no digging in required.
If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.”—Marcus Tullius Cicero East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
What's the best thing to mulch with? I'm wondering about doing that (after weeding of course). Do you just leave that mulch, or do you ever dig it in?
Depends. I mulch my veg beds with a manure & compost mix that local GC sell. My soil is acidic so manure helps to bring the pH a bit closer to neutral, - most veg being healthier in a slightly lime soil. I use a 4 bed rotation system and mulch the one that's having potatoes in it to about 4 inches deep. I also put some mulch - usually about 2 inches - around the beans when I plant them out, mostly to reduce the amount of watering I need to do (mulch reduces evaporation of water from bare soil). I have tried planting nasturtiums as ground cover instead but they just provided handy cover for the mice and voles which then ate the beans. I mulch my flower beds with rotted manure, or bark chips/composted bark for the acid lover plants, or grit for the ones that like better drainage and more heat on their roots.
I should say that I definitely don't mulch all of my garden every year - couldn't possibly afford it. I don't dig it in but it gradually gets worked in by worms, by planting and moving plants and by digging out the big nasty weeds that shrug off mulches (docks and nettles, mostly).
Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
Thanks so much, very useful info on mulching. If you use bark chips, or grit, so that's OK for the soil then - it's not a problem for soil quality to have a large of amount of chips/grit worked in to the soil over time?
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East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
If you have clay soil, the wet/dry point when a hoed weed will die is much harder to hit, the soil being very sticky until about 15 minutes before it transforms into a brick that the hoe just bounces off. I generally end up using a hand fork. Happily, I find it quite soothing, but it does take longer than hoeing. I also try to mulch every year, to limit the quantity. I can hoe my veg beds because I've spent 10 years diligently improving the soil every year. The flower beds are less well done so far.
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
What's the best thing to mulch with? I'm wondering about doing that (after weeding of course). Do you just leave that mulch, or do you ever dig it in?
Mulch breaks down over time so you don’t end up with sky high borders. You need to leave it as a surface layer if it’s to act as a mulch, no digging in required.
East facing, top of a hill clay-loam, cultivated for centuries (7 years by me). Birmingham
I mulch my veg beds with a manure & compost mix that local GC sell. My soil is acidic so manure helps to bring the pH a bit closer to neutral, - most veg being healthier in a slightly lime soil. I use a 4 bed rotation system and mulch the one that's having potatoes in it to about 4 inches deep.
I also put some mulch - usually about 2 inches - around the beans when I plant them out, mostly to reduce the amount of watering I need to do (mulch reduces evaporation of water from bare soil). I have tried planting nasturtiums as ground cover instead but they just provided handy cover for the mice and voles which then ate the beans.
I mulch my flower beds with rotted manure, or bark chips/composted bark for the acid lover plants, or grit for the ones that like better drainage and more heat on their roots.
I should say that I definitely don't mulch all of my garden every year - couldn't possibly afford it. I don't dig it in but it gradually gets worked in by worms, by planting and moving plants and by digging out the big nasty weeds that shrug off mulches (docks and nettles, mostly).
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”