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W E E D S !!!!!!! Help please :)
Janet Attwell
Posts: 2
We have recently moved to the countryside and there is a field full of mares tail and other undesirables available to us. Is it possible to turn this plot into a veg patch? If so, where the heck do we start? Step by step help would be great as we have never really done gardening on a large scale before 
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I don't use chemicals in my garden, I have marestail, did get rid of it a bit with pulling but sadly it seems to have come back with a vengeance.
I don't want to use chemicals. There is a little stream nearby and I don't want to contaminate it as the land slopes downwards. I was thinking of cutting it back then putting a large piece of tarpaulin down. Then next year putting weed surprising membrane then buying top soil and compost to fill raised beds. Would this work?
My veg patch was covered in Marestail when we moved in our house, 4 years later and it is still a slight problem but not as bad as it was. I too don't want to use chemicals and I pull it up using one if those deep root tools to try and get as much of the root as possible, although it isn't a field so that might be difficult for you
I started a thread on marestail a while ago when I didn't know what it was and there have been several others. See have said that the weed suppressant doesn't work, I don't know as I haven't used it. At the end of the summer I dig over the veg patch and take up as many roots as I can, I think this year I am also going to remove some if the existing soil and replace it with new topsoil/manure/compost mix.
To be honest I have learned to just live with it now and deal with it the best I can....I don't think there is an easy solution I'm afraid