My Allotment #1: what I've learnt so far WEEDS

[Weeds] Its been just over a year since I acquired my allotment plot and after many hours spent (with the help from my family) weeding, constructing raised beds, erecting polytunnels, more weeding, drinking tea and digging drainage trenches amongst things, the plot is ‘finally(?)’ ‘complete’.

As to say, the layout is complete and it is ready for a full growing season.

Here’s a few things I’ve learnt so far which may help you when trying to become food self-sufficient by saving you time, effort and money:

1. Weeds never stop growing when you stop weeding and leave.

Like it or not, the process of photosynthesis (where plants utilise sun light energy to convert it into chemical energy to fuel the plants biological activities such as growth) still goes on when you leave, both yours and worms digging actions bring weed seeds to the surface to germinate and of course the wind and excrement of animals aids the spreading of weed seeds. Weeds compete for light and nutrients which are essential for your crops.

Thus to deal with this I have found the following actions useful:

• After strimming & trimming the weeds, cover areas (cardboard is good as it will eventually rot killing the weeds with it) which you are not growing in — deprive those undesirable plants of sunlight and you deprive them of a necessary biological process (R.I.P). So it doesn’t matter if you can’t get round to working on that patch of land as without sun light those weeds can not grow! Weigh down with water-filled milk bottles.
• Got that newly weeded and dug bed ready to plant those carrots? Try resisting the temptation to plant straight away and water that bed a few times for a few weeks before sowing. This will get any weed seeds germinating which you can simply kill by hoeing off when the sun is out (called the dead seedbed technique). You can then direct sow those carrots knowing that fewer weed seeds will germinate to compete with your carrots when they are very small.
• Better yet how about sowing your crop plants in pots and giving them a chance to grow and head start before transplanting them into their growing bed? The bigger the crop plant seedling the easier it is to weed around them (think courgette seedling vs carrot seedling).
• Remember some weeds are edible as well!

Next on My Allotment: What I’ve learnt so far — LAYOUT