Allotment Problems

The good news is that nettles are supposed to be a sign of fertile soil!

My grandad used to cut them and steep them to make a liquid feed for his veggies (bit like comfrey).

I'd work on small areas at a time, covering the rest to keep the weeds at bay...don't try to dig too much at a time or you'll give up before you've even started.

We're fighting docks and creeping buttercup, so can sympathise

Nettles are easy.

They are very suscepitible to weedkiller and actually easy to dig out, provivded they are not in solid clay.

My sentiment exactly. Roundup (not cheap but the most effective) will reduce the wildest plot to crisp brown hey in about 2 weeks. When you're sure it's all dead (dig a bit up and have a look) take a rotavator to it then plant at will. All you need to do after that is hoe off any weed seedlings which poke through and Robert is your Fathers Brother. Oh and remember to compact the soil a bit where you're going to grow brassicas.

Burn them.

I had nettles growing in a patch of my back garden once, my veggies were true champions that year, but the nettles were palstered in aphids. So I guess they do have a number of uses.

I have nettles and brambles and they're not too bad to dig out if you do it at the right time when the soil is moist and loose.. I've been doing a mixture of the very methodical digging in rows cutting out a square at a time and removing as many roots as possible and, where it's just nettles, I've sometimes been kind of cutting under them with the spade and pulling up whole mats of roots which is rather satisfying the last thing I'm trying, which i will report back on later in the year is covering the chopped down nettles (green bits on the compost heap ) with a thick layer of card then heaping soil and compost on top and planting into that.. produced a very satisfying looking bed in a day, but remains to be seen whether that beats the nettles (and they'll still need digging out eventually.. but at least I can get a crop in on top first hopefully)

Clearing Nettles

I too took over a very overgrown allotment this year. Although I don't like to use chemicals they do have a place when starting out and clearing a neglected plot. Once it is clear there should be no need to use them in the future.

Round Up is a proprietry brand form of Glyphosate. Its main problem is that the surfactants added to it in order to help the spray stick to the leaves can be more damaging to the environment than the glyphosate itself.

Concentrated glyphosate can be purchased much more cheaply from places like Wilkos (Wilkos own brand about £8.00 a litre) and does not contain such damaging surfactants.

I always add red food colourant to my weedkiller, that way it is easy to see where you have been spraying so that you don't over use the chemical and it is easier to monitor your spraying to avoid drift.

I appreciate that a lot of people would dissagree with the use of chemicals but even SOME people that would consider themselves to be organic gardeners initialy clear the ground with glyphosate.

I have not used chemicals on my plot at home for years but did in the first season to get started.

GOOD LUCK taming your jungle and remember to enjoy your plot. Don't fret if you can't get everything done this year. Clear what you can and work one bit at a time. HAVE FUN.

thanks all of you i will probably use some sort of weedkiller probably glysophate by the sound of it and i will work only a small area this year, but will fill my time with clearing a bit more at a time when i am down there
jemus

eat 'em i said this earlier

Nettles aren't deep rooting actually, they are shallow - BUT can be very tough to dig out when they're all matted together.

Use glyphosate (never thought I'd say that ) but water it on with a watering can - you have more control where it goes than if you spray. Follow the instructions to the letter. If you can only dig over a small amount of ground, for goodness sake keep the rest under control - cover with carpet or similar, and cut off all weeds before they go to seed. Keep shearing/strimming the weeds and you'll beat them in the end.

These were my nettles in Feb. longlane3_400 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

nettles are easy to remove its the flipping couch grass grrrrrrrrrrrr

when i first took over my plot i thought i had won the battle and by the summer the weeds had beaten me into submission , dishartened i let it win in the end but i have now started again and i hope im on top of it this year lol only time will tell

check out my blog below , its full of fun