Weeds, Compost and Pruning NOURISH No 5 Two Rivers Community Trust.

Weeds, Compost and Pruning

NOURISH No 5Two Rivers Community Trust

First - Follow up on soil test results

Weeds

NOURISHTwo Rivers Community Trust

Key issues with weeds

• Sunshine, time, space, moisture = weeds. Lotsaweeds.• Mulch/cover = dark. Few weeds germinating. Thick layers

of cardboard, newspaper, straw limit light to weeds. That stops them. For a while.

• Buy clean mulch in – pea straw, compost etc • Don’t let weeds set seed. They are nasty – some set seed

in mid winter, mid summer and all times in between!• Artillery weed, bitter cress – a particularly nasty number.

Shrub/tree nurseries provide you this in their potting mix/plants.

Freebies – you get ‘their’ weeds. Beware

Bitter cress/artillery weed

Don’t let them get away at anytime

• Try to keep at least some areas of your garden really free of weeds – then grow carrots, parsnips, onions there – as their seedlings require lots of weeding.

• Hoeing is good in spring/summer.• Lots and lots of mulch is really helpful.• Farmer’s foot – best fertiliser for the field… OR• One yrs seeding, 7 years weeding.• Compost heaps don’t kill weed seeds. Normally.

Oxalis – family folk lore

• Hand removed pills – bulbs for years and got total control. Remove oxalis whenever you see it. Once you have it – seriously hard to get rid of.

Twitch/Couch

• Grows from underground rhizomes• Needs two to three control sprays with Roundup.• Effective control is possible

Lots to learn…

• Strips of carpet between carrots – so very, very little to weed.

• Your tricks? Your tried and true methods?

Natural means of weed control

• http://www.treehugger.com/lawn-garden/homemade-herbicide-kill-weeds-without-killing-earth.html

• Dig em out, boil them, burn them, salt them pickle them… borax – and maybe mix em all up.

• There’s headaches with all of these.

Not so natural - chemicals

• Two that are very common – Roundup is the most applied chemical – it kicked off in 1970 and in 2000 price dropped as patent ran out.

Roundup - From the manufacturer

• 360, 450, 540 g glyphosate /litre formulations.

From the manufacturer

• (Also check out – for independence http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyphosate

Rates of Roundup (formulation 360 is common)

• Annual weeds – 15mls per litre; 150 mls / 10 litres, 300 mls / 20 litre knapsack.

• Can double this rate for hard to kill plants.• Does not do a good job of clover or californian thistle,

ivy, periwinkle, convolvulus laughs at Roundup.• Thoroughly wet plants.• Apply when actively (slow is ok, esp cold weather, just

takes longer to act)• Now is good time to spray for spring tree shelter belt

planting.

What about grass weeds in amongst shrubs eg lavender?

• Rhizomatous grass weeds in a perennial border are a pain.

• Galant – herbicide will kill grass and leave the other alone.

• I wouldn’t eat the ‘other’. Ie I don’t spray this in my garden that I will eat out of.

Compost

NOURISHTwo Rivers Community Trust

Compost – key – tiger worms

moisture, food, some lime,

cardboard- here they are eating rhubarb leaves

Pruning – a plan for the future?

NOURISHTwo Rivers Community Trust

Currants, Raspberries, Grapes

• Too early to take grape cuttings – they are still thinking spring in our garden.

• Raspberries – one cultivar may be more prickly than the other.

• Labels – use old cans and a pen.• Blackcurrants – get some of two cultivars –

they sometimes need cross pollination. It’s helped at our place.