Weeding!

The house I moved into had been unoccupied for about 18 months and the once beautiful lawns, borders, etc were totally overgrown. Paid a very diligent, but costly, gardener, to strim and rake up the long grass and am gradually getting the lawns in order. The gravel is strewn with weeds especially dandelions. I know the bees love them but it is looking like a jungle! Am going to try salt and boiling water as the weeds are no where near the grass or flowers. Do have some beautiful shrubs and roses somewhere in the tangle of weeds!

Rosiesmaw Exactly my experience today. Still to get in the bath though.

Milest0ne

MillieBoris

Can anyone give me advice on bindweed please. Have a large garden and it’s gradually creeping round. I know it has a incredible root system so digging up isn’t an option, I don’t want to cover garden with black bin bags and it would take me a year to spray without killing all the other plants. Please don’t tell me to accept it as a glorious wild flower! It binds round everything and drags my lovely meadow flowers down - nightmare.

A plastic bottle with a small opening. Add weedkiller then push the growing tip of the plant in. It will work its way back to the root without affecting other plants.

Good idea, I'll try that.

I've seen a friend using polythene bags to isolate the bindweed, after unravelling it from the host.

MillieBoris

Can anyone give me advice on bindweed please. Have a large garden and it’s gradually creeping round. I know it has a incredible root system so digging up isn’t an option, I don’t want to cover garden with black bin bags and it would take me a year to spray without killing all the other plants. Please don’t tell me to accept it as a glorious wild flower! It binds round everything and drags my lovely meadow flowers down - nightmare.

A plastic bottle with a small opening. Add weedkiller then push the growing tip of the plant in. It will work its way back to the root without affecting other plants.

Charleygirl5

I have a lot of weeds appearing on my patio. I have read that if I sprinkle salt and then apply boiling water the weeds will die. I will try a small area before I invest in a shedload of salt.

Or try bio washing powder (if it is not going to run into a pond)

That was for Millieboris

Look up The Spruce and it will tell you what to do

Hardy geraniums are wonderful for ground cover. I have a lot of them.

But what type shysal?
I've been trying to get different ground cover for different conditions in my garden for ages.
The only one that really works is ivy, and I dont want that everywhere.
Phlox is supposed to be good in sunny aspects, so bought a ton of plug plants from T&M in lockdown. 1/4 were gone by the next year, and so on ever since.
It's very frustrating.

I am a big fan of ground cover, so do little weeding!

Whitewavemark2

A hoe is the best tool. No bending - no killing the wildlife - a quick weed once a week keeps them away.

I wish 🤣

Can anyone give me advice on bindweed please. Have a large garden and it’s gradually creeping round. I know it has a incredible root system so digging up isn’t an option, I don’t want to cover garden with black bin bags and it would take me a year to spray without killing all the other plants. Please don’t tell me to accept it as a glorious wild flower! It binds round everything and drags my lovely meadow flowers down - nightmare.

Where do you find a gardener?
All the so-called gardeners I've found (on local online sites) have wanted to mow the lawn (which my husband does on his ride-on mower) and cut back overgrown shrubs.
I need a real gardener.

Never been able to summon up much interest in gardens so I just employ a gardener to come once a month and tidy up. Once a year he prunes the trees and bushes. To me a garden is just somewhere to do photography. Some of the neighbours have the b****y lawnmower out every few days.

I have 5 acres. Husband abandoned me for Miss Voldermork last September and took all the batteries out of machines, took most of the tools, sabotaged the tractor. such malice and vindictive. So now with sun, rain, sun, rain I am lost in weeds!!

However wonderful neighbours and others. have swooped down with heavy duty mowers, chainsaws, strimmer s, fixed the tractor and ride on mower, putting calves and Shetland ponies w here appropriate.

So between rain and wind we are slowly winning. So much weeding! Body is hurting! Slowly we are getting there. I am so blessed to be surrounded by all these wonderful people. And the Gendarme have been amazing, feel very protected.

I came back from holiday raring to get going on the garden as it needs a massive tidy and in my part of Devon the weather has been fine for 10 days. Just my luck …. I came down with a virus that really floored me and haven’t been able to even walk upstairs. Hopefully I will start next week but have a busy calendar. Grrrrrrrrrr!

Be careful with the Weedol. I sprayed it over my patio. The weeds sprouted and it bleached the paving stones. Guess I used the wrong Weedol.

Very funny RosiesMaw! Love my garden, hate the weeds. I now let them grow higher so I don’t have to bend so far to pull them out.

I thought that rewilding was all the rage!

It's one of the few bonuses of only having a balcony now, I have very large pots so don't even have to bend down very far, I could sit on a chair if necessary.
The weeds seem to be growing 6" per day in the main gardens, I suppose it makes it easier to pull them out.
I can't believe how fast my roses are growing, they all have enormous leaves and big clusters of buds as the weather suits them so well. It looks like being a great year for roses.

That’s me exactly —although I’m Gran not Granny and it’s a G&T. Love it.

I spray the weeds on my two drives and the weeds outside of my property with white vinegar, they are dead almost at once. I ensure they are just starting to sprout before I spray them so I don't need to go round pulling them up afterwards. All my flower borders have perennial ground cover plants so no weeds are growing there either. I have tried to make my garden as easy care as possible after my husband died by planting evergreen flowering shrubs and hydrangeas in the borders in the back and side gardens. I have a gardener two hours every two weeks who trims the hedges for me and I do the rest.

My garden now works for me with limited care.

It’s not raining and the sun is shining. It’s a miracle. Thanks for the kind comment foxie - the practice nurse gave me clear advice on how not to put back my recover. Do not carry anything, do not dig. I definitely do not want to do anything to delay what all the medics tell me is Minimum 4 months of grim pain and restricted movement then 12 months before I get whatever will be my now normal. So - I’ll get the gardener to do a bit more - but i’m going to treat myself to some bedding out plants for the pots. Onwards and upwards 🌻

I've been trying to weed every day after an hour : I'm like a zig zag and crawl indoors for tea and pain killers .
On a good sunny day I'll do one hour in the morning and another in the afternoon .
I'm trying to reduce the weeding by planting flowering shrubs and putting decorative stones , shells and pebbles around them .
My father dug massive flower beds and eventually had to employ gardeners to weed them .
He'd stay in to watch them and lose his temper .
He had kept them beautifully and the gardeners were a disaster .
They had no gardening knowledge at all and couldn't tell which plants were weeds .
They seemed to spend hours on their mobiles .
One used to hide behind the trellis .
I also tried to employ them with much the same problem .
I had a garden party a couple of years ago and I found it really hard work to get the garden in shape .
It's pleasant today so I'll have another go at the weeds .

Brilliant RosiesMaw!