1. Bindweed
Grow bindweed up a stick and treat with glyphosate

2. Perennial sowthistle Long underground root Can regrow from fragments
Removal of root after digging then pulling out shoots or hoeing deplete roots of food.
Control
Fortnightly hoeing

3. Horsetail Releases 100,000 spores in spring
need moist and specific conditions to grow

6. Horsetail Has roots and tubers Maximum shoot growth July
10 cm length rhizome can produce 64m in one year!
Regrows from roots and tubers
Can pierce plastic mulching
Control
Persistent stem cutting, drought, competitive tall crops. 25+ years hoeing

7. Couch Roots with buds Buds produce new shoots
Shoot buds at nodes
Roots with buds
Buds produce new shoots
Longer root fragments reshoot more readily
Couch in path re-infests
Seed also important
Control
Dig out at 3-4 leaf stage
Remove rhizomes when soil is dryer, dry out to kill

8. Nettles
Perennial nettle
Annual nettle

9. Stinging nettle root Coarse and often long yellow tough root
Dig out and pull up runners
Wear gloves

10. Creeping thistle root Brittle Regenerates from top 12” (30cm)
Undisturbed fragments grow years later
Control
Remove top 12” root

11. Grasses
Broad leaved plants

12. Small weeds are easier to control

13. Hoe early, on a dry day

14. Planting arrangements
Make sure row width is wider than the hoe
Arrangement make hoeing difficult

15. Management Remove fruiting heads Feb Mar Apr Jan May Jun Jul Aug Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Hoe
Weeds grow strongly remove large plants
Remove fruiting heads
Remove roots
Keep hoeing

16. What to do with the weeds
Leave them on the soil
Add them to the compost heap (heat destroys seeds)
Perennial weeds –
Can regenerate in the heap
Put in a bucket of water to rot down
Leave to dry out in the sun
Put in the green bin

17. Mulches Black weed control fabric or others cardboard
Months or year
Grow cucurbits through it
cardboard
Green waste compost or home made
Minimum 2 inches thick – inches
Cover crop and green mulch
slugs

18. Plot hygiene Check around the plots
Let plants flower (bees) but not set seed

19. Herbicides
Contact
Systemic

20. Herbicides Crop / Uses Lawn Ornamental garden plants
Active ingredients
Fatty acids
Ferrous sulphate
MCPA
Mecoprop-P
Flufenacet
Glyphosate
Metosulam
Dicamba
Dichloprop-P
diquat
Clopyralid
Triclopyr
2,4-D
Acetic acid
Herbicides
Crop / Uses
Lawn
Ornamental garden plants
Unwanted vegetation
areas not intended to bear vegetation
hard surfaces
natural surfaces not intended to bear vegetation
permeable surfaces overlying soil

21. Glyphosate Still available Awaiting decision from EU Not been banned
Some places don’t sell it
Don’t spray crops/garden plants with it

22. Home made herbicide
3.3 pints of vinegar ½ cup of salt (4oz) 2 tablespoons of washing up liquid This is still a chemical mixture. Use it neat Should be as effective as glyphosate – BUT Contact not systemic

23. Remember it’s always Christmas in the garden
Hoe, Hoe, Hoe

24. Any questions?