Summer Bedding border weed problem

Hi all Ive just joined this forum as I was hoping some of you may be able to give me some gardening advice. I live in Scotland and have a little border I dug that runs along the front of my house. I like to do summer bedding plants and continers etc. The problem with this flower bed is that it gets filled with a small white flowered weed which I discovered was chick weed. THe bed looks fine when I putr my bedding plants such as Petunia or Verbena in. But later as the weeks go on toward the summer I see the little seedlingsof the chickweed appear with just two little leaves. I try to remove as many as I can and last summer waited to they where larger as I thought they would then be easier to remove. I try but feel I'm fighting a losing battle. gradually they get bigger that they seem to take over a lot. My flowers also havent seemed to flourish as much as they should. I know I should have fed them more often but my neighbours dont seem to be giving their bedding plants lots of food and my display seems poor in comparison to thiers. Then It struck me that the chickweed would be getting all the nutrients from the soil affecting my plants.

When I originally dug this bed I filled it to raise it up with top soil. I dont know at all what to do for this summer. How do I get rid of the weeds and when. Or do I need to end up putting a membrane on top then new soil and start again was is the bed option and how can I prepare the bed for this coming summer. Thanks in advance for your help.

Peter.

 

Hi Dark Raven and welcome to the forum.

We all know the problem of weeds. If they are small, I doubt that they are taking much goodness out of the soil. However they are still unsightly. A lot of weeds like chickweed are annuals, and if they are allowed to flower and then set seed, they will have already ensured next years crop even if you later pull them out. The only way is to get on them early, before they set seed. Even so its still a constant battle.

Membranes are fairly unsightly and difficult to use when you are growing plants. One method is to have just so many plants so close together that they block out the light and smother the smaller weeds below. I grow perennials this way, and I don't have a great problem with weeds - but you always get some.

 

Hello Dark Raven, and welcome to the forum.
I too live in Scotland - but I don't think it's a local problem.
The weeds you describe might be Chickweed ( I find that has a distinctive and unpleasant smell to me when it's damp) or Hairy bittercress (ground hugging with very small white flowers which can appear in any month of the year).
Both are annual weeds. That is, they don't grow off old roots but reappear from this years seeds.
The best approach is to have them out before they seed. You don't need to worry about digging the roots out, just get the tops off.
Sadly, the seeds can live in the ground for years - and up they come.
It's a matter of persistence - but they do give in.
Unless they are rampant I don't think I don't think that is what is causing a poor show from your flowers. It's more likely to be the general poor condition of the soil.
Please come back and tell us what you are growing and what the soil is like.
As for the weeds - it's just keep their heads shopped off !
7 years should do it. :D

 

Hi Dark Raven,

Last year we planted our summer bedding border very tightly packed, and found we had very few weeds. We too suffered a bad weed problem, as we had only just moved into the house and many weeds had took hold.

Another thing we did was after planting each summber bedding plant, we mulched around them with general multipurpose compost to act as a mulch. Not sure if this helped regarding weed control, but I will be doing the same again this year, even if to just provide additional nutrients to the plants. (which you mentioned was a problem for yourself)

Our biggest problem now is pulling up all the self seeded summer bedding which are now carpeting the area!

Also... welcome to the forum.

 

Welcome to the forums Dark Raven.

Chickweed. Chopped and fried in a little butter with salt and freshly ground pepper

You'll wish you had more of it after trying that

 

Hi thanks for all your replies I would have responded sooner thought I had set it up for email notifications lol. I usually end up buying some sort of petunias like double ones or I love the star variety's too and things like Verbena quartz mix for eg. Last year I tried celiosa as I saw them in B&Q and thought they looked really different quite unusual. Years ago when my border was in better health I had good success with Diascia too. I think the only bedding plant I'm not keen on is impatiens or the Begonia Semperflorens I find then a little boring just my personal preferrence. And In the lead up to the summer I'm always on the lookout for something new and different or maybe an unusual colour or something.

I'm not sure what type of soil I have I can maybe check tomorrow. I read theres a test you can do by rolling it in your fingers to try and create a ball. There is also two rose bushes that grow in this border one in the middle and one on the right hand side. I hope I dont have to wait 7 years seems a long time lol. I may start removing the weeds as soon as they appear. this year. There are a couple of dandelions that I can remove now while I'm waiting. Maybe this year I can add something to improve the soils quality. If only all the chickweed appeared well before summer and before I have to put my bedding in I could zap it with some weedkiller.
Peter.

 

Unless I'm thinking of another common weed (which is possible as I'm easily confused), chickweed has such a fast lifecycle that it grows from seed, then sets it own seed in as little as six weeks. That means you'll have to pull them out very regularly, until you get it under control. Chickweed isn't deep rooted, so its really easy to pull out.

As for your neighbours display looking better than yours without them really feeding their plants, a couple of years ago I discovered the wonders of 'dead heading'. Could that be it? Picking off the flower heads as they go past their best seems counterintuitive, after all you're pulling off flowers when you want flowers, but it makes more new flowers magically appear a couple of days later. I only discovered this trick a couple of years or so ago, and I had to force myself to try it because I felt like I was ripping off the very things I wanted, but the result as astounding.

 

Hi your right about dead heading I have done this before and know its supposed to help I dont think I have done it often enough. I think I need to keep at it and not lose interest spend less time on facebook and more time on the plants.

 

Hello Dark Raven
as others have said just keep going on the weeding before they seed . You probably will never eradicate them but you can get them down to an acceptable level.
Do you apply any fertiliser to the border ? I would suggest buying some "Growmore" from your local pound shop or Wilkos etc, and use it at the recommended rates from the last half of March .
When you plant your bedding plants in late May (after your areas last frost date ), make sure you give them a really good soaking , and as you plant them tease out the roots so it is not like the pic below. You can be fairly aggressive with teasing the roots out so it can establish itself quickly . I can't find a picture of a plant with the roots teased out but you really need to loosen that tangled and compressed mass of roots at the bottom of the plant.
.