Tackling weeds organically

They can't all be bad...can they?

If you've just started gardening, learning how to identify different types of weeds is not easy. But it's important that you learn to do so, because then you'll know which ones are the real nasties and which ones you can tolerate. Some are certainly worse than others.

I bet you can already recognise quite a few of the real offenders, such as dandelion, bindweed and horsetail. You've probably also heard of couch grass, and when you start digging it up you'll realise what it is, believe me. On the surface it just looks like normal grass but beneath the soil lie long white roots like noodles, stretching across vast areas. Digging out couch grass is a painstaking task, as every broken piece of stem will re-sprout and grow into a new plant.

Bindweed and horsetail are much the same and, because these are perennials, it's likely they'll pose a problem for you for some years to come. They die back to their roots in winter and grow afresh every spring, plaguing your plot throughout the summer. Keep at it though, because it's possible to control them and eventually you can be totally rid of them for good.

Although annual weeds are much less pernicious, the sheer quantity of them tends to overwhelm the new plotter. Groundsel, chickweed, Good King Henry, sun spurge - you'll get to know them all intimately over the next few weeks.

These annuals grow rapidly when the soil has been disturbed by planting, watering and weeding. Some species can grow, flower and seed in a matter of days, which means you really do need to visit the plot at least once a week to keep it in order. At the moment, Lizzy and I usually pop up there at least twice a week, safe in the knowledge that things will calm down when the weather gets really hot.

How to keep one step ahead

Now you can recognise the weeds, it's time to deal with them. Hand weeding is simple and thorough, but time consuming. Hoeing is quick and easy but the weeds do tend to re-grow. If, like us, you can't manage the hoeing all at once, there are also various mulches to consider.

• Hoeing is fast and really efficient on a hot sunny day. Lizzy maintains that it only chops the tops off the weeds and that they are still able to re-grow with a vengeance. That's true at times, but a hot day can frizzle those chopped stems to a crisp, seedlings are slaughtered at one jab of a hoe and, quite frankly, it was the only way I could cope when Lizzy was away for three weeks last June.
• Weeding by hand is undoubtedly by far the best method but it's a labour of love. It's a joy after it has rained - the weeds slip out of the moist ground with their roots intact, but if the soil is dry and hard the roots often break off. Don't get too bogged down with weeding by hand. If you're pushed for time (or your back is feeling a bit sore), it's better to whisk a hoe around a few beds than to have one perfect bed and the rest a forest of weeds.
• Mulching is a must on our plot. We use carpet and woodchip to mulch our paths, and a weed-suppressing membrane to cover the pumpkin and squash bed so we don't need to weed between the plants. You can use black plastic in the same way, but it deteriorates after one season and you must puncture holes in it to allow water through. There are risks attached to using carpet, because chemicals in the fibres can leach into the soil. But we've used good-quality wool carpet on the plot from the word go, to smother and hopefully weaken a particularly large patch of bindweed. It seems to have worked on our potato patch this year.