Gardening tips to dodge the showers
This week’s gardening suggestions are to dodge the rain showers! It’s hard work sometimes, but the rain makes the weeds grow so they need keeping under check. Learning to use a hoe is important and you’ll discover why you should space your rows of veg the right distance apart, as well as in straight lines. It’s only when you’ve twisted and turned whilst hoeing that you realise your lines of onions weren’t as straight as you thought.
Some weeds can just be hoed off. Especially annual weeds and if it’s hot! The poor little weeds just frazzle on the soil surface in hot sun which kills them off. In damp weather they might just take root again. It’s a tricky decision whether to spend hours back breakingly weeding by hand or whether to hoe and hoe again.
Gardening is supposed to be fun, so don’t overdo it – a little each day is probably best!
Even if you weed out all the weeds big enough to pull out you can guarantee there’ll be some more there tomorrow! The dandelions need digging out, as do the docks with their nasty long roots. Even a tiny bit of dandelion root can grow so it’s worth doing your best to get rid of them. The alternative is to actually pick the leaves and eat them as a salad vegetable! But don’t let them flower and set seed else your neighbours won’t like you!
Chickweed is one of the quick growing annual weeds that’s quite invasive. It’s got tiny white flowers and is quick to set seed too. It can easily smother seedlings so it’s worth trying to get rid of as much as possible each time you weed.
Don’t neglect the edges of your vegetable patch too. There’s as likely to be weeds growing in the edges that will creep onto the soil as soon as you turn your back. Strim away the weeds if you can and compost them all. If you’re leaving a plot or bed empty for any length of time then you could either cover the surface with plastic or weed cover or plant a green manure crop to cover the soil. Green manure plants are great – you let them grow and dig them in before they flower. They add nutrients and organic matter to the soil and also hopefully stop the weeds colonising the land too!
Green manure crops are usually quite cheap – you buy a packet of seeds and springle them on! This is certainly easier to carry home from the shops than a bag of compost! The land being used means it doesn’t suffer as much wind or rain erosion as a bare patch would and they maintain the soil structure too. They are also good for wildlife – those that flower provide the bees places to feed! Some of them like red clover are not only good for bees but fix nitrogen too! There are many types of green manure available and they can be planted at different times of the year.
