Weeding according to need.

Our carrots were treated to their one and only weeding of the season. At this stage of their growth they were in danger of suffering serious competition from the weeds, which had relished the watering as much as the carrots had, so it was important to redress the balance and make sure that the carrots were the dominant species.

To be honest the weeding was very rough and ready – it was more a case of ripping off as much top growth as possible and as many roots as would come up easily without disturbing the young carrots.

As regular readers will know we grow our carrots under enviromesh to protect against carrot fly. There’s not much point giving this protection if we keep removing the mesh to weed so from now on the carrots will be one their own. As it was most of the weeding was down with the top half of me joining the carrots under the mesh and occasionally being pinned down under the mesh by our house guest when she sat on the mesh whilst I weeded under it. (I better explain that our house guest is four legged and furry).

Experience has shown that once the carrots start to grow strongly that they can hold their own against weeds. The only reasons to weed the carrots more often would be to make the bed look tidier or to stop weed seeds spreading but as this is covered it is out of sight anyway so should not be the subject of any complaints.

I also weeded the onion bed but here a completely different method was employed. This time I wanted to remove as much weed growth root and all as I could. Once the weeds become too large it is difficult to remove them without uprooting the onion bulbs and onions can rot at the base if the weeds trap too much moisture and restrict air circulation, (too much moisture now that is a joke at the moment!)


I have a different method of weeding under the fruit trees. I really don’t want to start digging about around the roots of established fruit bushes and trees so whenever I have few minutes to spare I hoe off the tops of the weeds. In dry weather the tops soon shrivel and die. Most of the weeds are annuals but any perennial weeds will eventually give up the ghost after being repeatedly given this treatment.

For tall, thick growing crops - for instance once the potato tops or brassicas are well grown we tend to pull out the weeds once they have become visible above the crops. If we have time we will weed underneath too if we feel things are getting out of hand.


As for potatoes earthing as well as helping prevent potato tubers from being exposed to the light also keeps down the weeds.

On the plot the basic principle for weeding is whatever is best for the plants - if weeding is going to damage the plants them we leave them. Of course in the garden it is entirely different as we want the garden to look at its best - fortunately as most of our planting in the garden is fairly permanent we don't have as much of a battle with weeds. Haven't you noticed that recently dug soil soon produces a new crop of annual weeds as digging brings the dormant seeds to the surface. Chickweed seed can lie dormant in the soil for 40 years so what chance do we have of winning the battle against it?

Nest cam update

We think we have five surviving chicks some are looking very fluffy and cute now but I am a bit concerned that one doesn't appear to be thriving as much as the others.

Dahlia update

We thought all our dahlia tubers had rotted over winter but on clearing the pile of straw we found that the tubers that were left planted under the pile rather than those that were dug up are now producing shoots.