Newbie Needs Help!

Hi All,

I've just joined this forum since I need some advice and am really hoping you can help me. I'm a beginner so bare with me!

We moved into a house that had a veggie patch the year before last and the first year we were here it was lovely. Last year however, as my potatoes and tomatoes were coming through I noticed I had a weed spreading like wildfire throughout the entire patch, someone identified it as elderweed and since I couldnt use weed killer on it we resigned ourselves to abandoning last years crop and start a fresh this year. We dug out the patch by about 2 foot and sunk an old bath tub into it, I have onions and carrots growing in there at the moment. The weed (elderweed or otherwise) is everywhere!! Its even started to get into the bathtub and its now moving across to other beds. What can I do???? Please help, I'd really like to get into veggie gardening but this is proving a menace!!!!!

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Em x

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner Em

Glyphosate is probably the best way to go,

Have a look at this thread,

http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/threads/problem-ground-elder-invasion.8325/

 

Thanks for the quick reply!

I gather than once I've used something like glyphosate that I cant use the area as a veggie patch anymore?

How frustrating!

 

To be hoped one can, i have been growing Veg on our veg patch for the last 16 years after clearing it with Glyphosate.

 

Not a problem with growing veg afterwards, its systemic, it gets absorbed into the plants whole system and degrades afterwards.

You won't notice any effects for a couple of weeks, then the weeds start to drop. don't dig it out until it has, you want it to go right into the roots.

 

Thanks for the advice, I really thought that if I used a weed killer I wouldnt be able to grow edible veg in it! Good job I came on here

Ok, so my plan of action is to treat the entire area around the the bath tub and leave that to die off. When I have harvested my onions and carrots I will treat the bath tub (since there is only 2 little shoots at the moment) and hopefully rid myself of it completely.

Oh, and one other question, completely off topic but you people seem to be the ones in the know, my rhubarb is ENORMOUS already....I mean, some of it is already red and over a foot from the base to the leaf. When can you harvest rhubarb? It hasn't ever been this big until September before....no idea what has happened to it

Thanks again

Em

 

Good advice there Armandii

The plant will benefit from a liquid feed too during the season and a dressing of rotted moo poo in the winter.

So many gardeners just take the Rhubarb patch for granted but it really benefits from a good feed & splitting up when it gets overgrown.

Another shameless chance to show off


Sorry, but it was the first competition i'd entered.

 

That is fine looking rhubarb rhubarb rhubarb , Ziggy next to those overgrown ones . Hmm I can almost taste a crumble with cream

 

Sounds like a good plan to me, but there is just one thing I think we should add.

Glyphosate is good stuff (personally I find Round Up the best one, but that's my experience), but it wont do anything about weed seeds in the soil. So once you've killed off everything that's growing, don't be too quick to use the treated soil. Especially don't sow seeds direct into it. This is just because weeds seeds in the soil will survive the glyphosate bombardment and will germinate when they get the chance. If you sow seeds direct into the soil, your seedlings will have to compete against the weed seedlings that will inevitably emerge.

There are plenty of options though. The most extreme option would be to cover the treated ground with weed control fabric or black polythene and leave it a while, giving the weed seeds chance to germinate and then die. Personally I wouldn't do that though.

Another option would be to plant something very competitive, but easy to control there. My two favourite options for this job are potatoes or nasturtium. The former need no introduction. The latter is a very pretty flowering plant that grows so fast and has such dense foliage it just out competes everything. Under the canopy of nasturtium you get ideal conditions for seed germination, ie sheltered and moist, but no sunlight can get through so most weeds just can't get the light they need. Then come the first frosts of the winter and nasturtium is quickly brought under control.

Still another option is to just grow your stuff in containers, so that you can re-treat the ground as weed seedlings appear, without getting your plants.

 

I knew you'd get in on this thread other Dave

 

Sorry Daves, just been watching Doctor Who.

 

How big is this veg patch? you say the Elderweed is moving to other beds? just treating the veg patch wont get rid of it then, it'll just spread back after you clear it, but treating the veg patch with a weed killer will clear a large area, then treating the spreading weeds in small areas or by hand weeding, you need to remove them all from you garden, I'm in the same boat myself with bind weed lol



Plant Potty.