What have I started?

Sometimes we procrastinate to much as we are daunted by the task ahead. Set yourself little goals over the coarse of a week and take pictures as you go. I have a weekly plot picture as my homepage during the summer to help enthuse me as its good to see the development.

While its always good to have a plan to work towards, you'll soon find this is flexible and likely to change over time.Set yourself a small challenge and get cracking, and don't forget piccies are always welcome here.

With ground elder you need to get all of the roots out as even little pieces will grow. They are fairly easy to see as they are white. While there is ground elder I wouldn't double dig as this will just dig the roots in deeper and make it harder to get rid of. What I would do is remove as much as I could see then cover the ground with black polythene for a month or so which should encourage it to start growing and "declaring" itself. You can then hopefully get rid of most of it before you plant your crops.

Is it ever nae nippy at Straw'n, Phil ?!

As regards the ground elder, I found that covering it with something light proof for a while is one of the best ways to ease doing away with it; lift your cover and the soil is easily dug, with the roots coming out more easily. Single digging ground elder is enough hard work for anyone, without double digging to add misery to your sore back !
What I did wrong when I came by a plot of ground in Aberdeen was I tried to be clever; I stripped off the top layer of sods, and piled them first of all upside down, then in a pile of layers that was earth to earth, foliage to foliage, the idea being that once covered they would rot down as grass turves do. A year later, and hey presto ! A nice big lump of fertile soil to put into my raised beds.
It didn't work that way... The covers I used (at various times, tarps and cardboard) were either not totally lightproof, or leaked, or both. So I ended up with a lump of hard, dry soil with some extremely well-watered, uncompeted-with ground elder plants with very deep roots. It is still there, reproaching me for my laziness, daring me to do away with it.
Ever since then, I have just simply dug out ground elder with a fork, preferably when the soil is moist, shaking the soil off the roots and throwing the plants into an area of waste ground, where they just vanish.
It works much better that way, although progress seems slower and my sore back tells me it is more laborious. As I am often unable to dig, this is of major importance.
However, I have recently found by accident that dumping loads of wood chippings on the path is great for killing off virtually all plants except those with long tap roots. Half the battle there is possibly the full-newspaper thickness of overlapping "i's" that I put down first, but certainly, I am going to give it a go with first of all leaf mould, then newspapers, then wood chippings, on top of the ground elder infested area; with a bit of luck within six months, I will have a worm-filled, nitrogen rich soil that barely needs digging.
I'll let you know...

Nice one, I like the sound of that.
Looks like the weather is another wet weekend, so it may be a planning weekend. Thanks.


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Well that is a lot of stuff for a Friday evening, over a glass of the red stuff, for reading but much appreciated.
I'll give it a bash and get back also. No rush, or is procrastination? :-)



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Thanks Mikey.
I just need to understand what I can start now and what I should be leaving until after the ground is released from the icy grip of winter.






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Don't have ground elder but generally I would recommend removing as much as you can, you won't get rid of it all straight away but over time you will at least get it under control.

A plan is a good idea, it focus your mind and helps you prioritise things and gets you started. You can change it later if you want/need to.

With such a persistent weed as ground elder I would consider spraying or painting individual leaves with roundup after it has grown up and shown itself. (This will not be popular with a lot of other members) but it is one of the hardest weeds to eradicate.

Ground elder is a nightmare! ! I've tried everything including the dreaded weed killer and I've still got it in a few of my flower beds. Don't plant in it until you've got the lot out and when you do plant up, plant fast growing crops that don't mind being disturbed because there will be more of the stuff hiding...

Sunday Afternoon toil

Well, I have taken the bull by the horns and got started.

Sunday was a great day here and just the day to get this project kick started. I'd like to thank Mikey for the virtual stimulus needed, I'm procrastinating no longer.

I've posted a few photos of my starter plot, it's not big but I did say I'd start slow.



First stage locate plot and get the ruff stuff out. I was thankful for having a large sheet of ply to put the soil on.



Then managed to get some planks down as the starter for my border



I then filled the base of the plot will some well rotted compost



I spent quite some time sifting through the soul as I returned it to the plot, this helped to remove a lot of the weeds.



My finished item.

I have covered this plot with an old carpet and then a cover of black plastic. My question is now, is this to much?


The plot is 60cm X 220cm which give me a 1.3 sqm plot. I believe this will do to just get stared. I'm happy.

And now I have a plan also, I wonder if this will work.

Next stage is to get varieties, but the big question is when to start planting?

We know the snow must be on the way, is best to wait or do I uncover the plot, plant and recover?
HELP?????

Be guided by AP and the other grapes in your area as to when to start sowing/planting. The only thing I would be tempted to plant in the next - say - month would be the garlic, which I'd get in now.

plus one to what Hazel said...
nd if you have somewhere suitable, you could start some onion sets in modules..