How I Weed

So I have been promising to do more "how to" type posts and this is one them; my "how I weed".

I am not saying that you have to do it this way, but I find this to be a therapeutic but fast method which allows me to get my hands dirty (part of the pleasure of growing your own) and feel close to the soil, while removing a very large proportion of weeds, including very tiny ones before they start to take over.

So, without any more preamble, follows the pictures:

1. Identify the weed; there it is, that little splash of green...

2. Push your finger in next to the plant, very gently, to break the earth up without breaking the roots.

3. Again very gently, push the soil against the weed to continue breaking up it's supporting earth. You can do this RIGHT next to a plant that you want to keep if you are gentle as the weed will extract itself very cleanly.

With the earth around the weed loosened carefully grasp it as low down as possible and very very gently pull.

If you have loosened the soil correctly then the weed will just come free really easily. If you haven't, and the root breaks, you will feel (and almost certainly hear) it do so and will be able to go in again to find it.


So there you have it.

How I Weed.

Aren't you glad you read that blog.

On other matters, my potatoes are up to about 25 plants in the main bed, the tomatoes are going NUTS (I am taking pictures every day for a week and will post a set of those pictures up a week today.  The chillis had a day in the greenhouse (on the day the sun put it's hat on) and are looking ok. Still no sign of carrots, parsnips, cabbage or spring onions, and I've started some pots with Sweetcorn in (and started digging the bed for them; hard work with MASSIVE tree roots across the plot :(..)

So, onwards and upwards :) thanks for reading, please follow and comment if you want to.