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Weed Prevention

cazsophieq2019cazsophieq2019 Posts: 193
in Problem solving
Hi peeps

Hope you're all well.

I'm forever weeding and never seem to get time to actually get on top of my borders.

I want to plant easy, pretty, low maintenance bee 🐝 loving / wildlife etc plants.

Have owned my new gardens for almost four years and with the help of my late dad 😢 made a lot of progress.  However the next year or two would like to have some semblance of a happy wildlife and cultivated garden that's easy to maintain and enjoy.  There's only me living here and money isn't growing on my trees lol.

At the min my main aim is simply to keep the weeds at bay in order to do some planting.

Any thoughts on best way forward, cardboard, membrane etc.

Pix show what I am dealing with, some of these are plants that were already in the garden and I would like to keep if possible.  Some I'm not so sure about.  Thanks for any help at all ☺️

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  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    I'm afraid, that's gardening. 
     In the second photo you have a sycamore sapling that needs to come out. You also have some bramble that you need to remove. Apart from that, most of the other weeds could be hoed or easily removed with a cheap weeding tool.
    Once you have dealt with the weeds, you need to hoe the weedlings regularly to stop them taking over again. This won't take much time or effort.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    There's a bit of bindweed too. You might want to paint a bit of weedkiller gel on the leaves if you can't face digging it out. Be careful to keep it off the plants you want to save.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • cazsophieq2019cazsophieq2019 Posts: 193
    @B3 thanks for replying, yes there's bindweed popping up everywhere, but yes where that bindweed seems to be in the photo will definitely need targeted with a weedkiller.  Although I am still very hesitant about using it as there's a lot of bees around my garden at the min and don't want to do anything that could harm them.  I even stopped weeding a certain area of my garden as spotted a bumblebee burrowing into the undergrowth.

    I've become so conscious of the potential harm to insects etc in garden I often wonder if I'm overthinking things 🙄😜

    I'm pretty aware that weeding is never not going to be part of my gardening routine lol however my thinking was .... using membrane or cardboard as a temporary weed suppressant until I decide which plants I wish to plant in my borders.  I wouldn't be using and.leaving it there would plant to lift it once the growing season passes.  And once I've figured out which shrubs etc to plant will reply on them along with weeding to manage weeds.

    Hopefully it'll work for me 🙂

  • nick615nick615 Posts: 1,487
    cazsophieq2019  I'd suggest you've already mentioned some of the effective measures, like membrane, but that would only be suitable if you intended blitzing the whole bed(s) to start again.  My solution would be to cut all the stuff you DON'T want back to ground level, after pulling out things like sycamore saplings as someone said above.  As long as you have some form of transport (or a friend who does), this may be the ideal time to collect as many lawn mowings as you can, so that they can be packed round the plants you want to keep as deep as possible, and covering where you want to clear of the unwanted stuff.  If, between now and Christmas, you can create a brown carpet of them, interspersed with the plants you want to keep, you should be able to rake the mowings off in say February, to find more or less pristine areas in between new plants.  Grass cuttings should be freely available at this time of year.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    edited July 2021
    Just a caveat re the grass clippings … don’t use ones that have been treated with Lawn Weed & Feed or similar in the last few weeks as they may damage plants they come in contact with, so if there are plants you want to keep they will be at risk. 

    Also grass that has  seedheads on it should not be used, as you’ll end up with beds full of grass seedlings. 

    Otherwise I agree, a grass clippings mulch is a good idea. 

    😊 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • IgrowfromseedIgrowfromseed Posts: 284
    After a spring weed I apply a liberal amount of wood bark mulch, looks nice, keeps moisture and is a great weed suppressant. The odd weed still pops it's head through but can easily be removed. 
  • PosyPosy Posts: 3,601
    The thing is that once you get on top of the weeds, it won't take anything like so much time. I would choose an area and blitz it: take out every single weed and fork over the soil. Next time, choose another section but spend 10 minutes just forking over the first patch before you start, or use a hoe if there is space. You will never eliminate weeds, a mulch will help if you can afford it, but the task becomes easier every time you do it, as long as you don't let them get a hold in the first place.
  • cazsophieq2019cazsophieq2019 Posts: 193
    edited July 2021
    @Posy
    @Dovefromabove
    @Igrowfromseed
    @nick615

    Thanks everyone for your advice, as the grass clippings are readily available will.use them.  

    It also occurred to me that old left over excess soil, used compost from planting early potatoes amongst other plants would act as a good mulch? 

    What are your thoughts, have a good.bit of spent soil in planters that I had bulbs in.

    Thanks again 🙂
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    That’s exactly what I do with old compost from tubs and planters. 😊 

    check it for vineweevil grubs first. If there are any, tip it out onto a plastic sheet for a couple of days and let the birds have a feast. 

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    An even easier way to avoid endless weeding is to grow lots of ground cover plants once you clear the site well enough. 
    There are lots of plants which will do the job, and if they get a bit above themselves, it's easier to pull bits of them out rather than weeds. I do very little weeding  :)
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
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