Allotment weeds

jamesebbage

Hello, I have had an allotment now for just over a year and I’m really struggling with weeds. I find it doesn’t matter how much weeding I do and how often I can never get on top of it. Any advice for pesky weeds? 

Dovefromabove

Hoe hoe hoe 😉 

Sorry, just realized you’re a new member ... that’s not meant to be facetious ... constant and repeated ‘tickling’ of the soil surface with a sharp Dutch hoe juis the best way to keep om top of the beggars. 

And welcome to to the forum 😊 

barry island

I'm afraid that there's no easy answer to allotment weeds, the problem is that unlike most urban gardens where most neighbours keep weeds under some sort of control allotment neighbours like to have weedy corners which means that there's never a shortage of weed seed blowing about, add to that most plots have been left to go to weed in-between tenants and you will be forever pulling and digging up weeds. I've seen plots especially this time of the year which have been given up and within a few weeks they are waist high in weeds. Allotments and weeds go hand in hand I'm afraid.

BobTheGardener

I agree, the first year will be the worst but because the hoeing will stop them from seeding, there will be noticeably fewer weeds each year.  There's an old saying "One year's seeds, seven years weeds" which is fairly self explanatory.

However, for quicker results you can keep the surface mulched with something such as compost or well-rotted farmyard manure and plant through it.  If you do that each autumn, the lack of light will prevent many weed seeds from germinating and many will rot.  As a bonus, doing so will also improve your soil without having to really do any digging.

Be careful where you source manure/compost from though as it needs to have been composted at a high enough temperature to kill any seeds, something which is difficult to do when making our own in a garden or allotment, so I recommend commercially produced stuff for this use.