WeedMat

  I had some major weed issues this last garden season! This last spring  I incorporated two trailer loads of horse manure into my garden  to add organic matter and nutrients to the soil.  While I love what it did for the texture of my predominantly clay soil, there were two pitfalls to my efforts.  First, the  manure had residual water soluble herbicides,  most likely from treated hay, that my source and I didn't realize were present.  (I highly recommend you read the  full story here  before making a decision for or against using manure in your garden.)  Second, and this I anticipated, the manure brought in an abundance of weed seeds that grew with great delight (as you can see in the picture above) until I got a handle on them. There are several ways to eliminate weeds.  I used two of them this summer by  mulching  and physically pulling the weeds, and another was inadvertently added to my garden with the manure, h...

  About Us Allotments Our Site Gardening Diary Our Garden Garden Wildlife Sow, Grow & Harvest Recipes Seed and plant suppliers Our Growing Techniques Gardening Equipment Sown/Planted in 2025 2025 Diary 2025 Harvesting Seed & Plant List Friday, August 9 We'll use even more next year. Regular readers can't fail to have noticed that we have used weed control fabric in a big way this year but we have still had some beds uncovered. Where we have used the fabric it has certainly made a big difference. Some weeding has been necessary in the beds where fabric has been used. Weeds still grow around the edges of the bed where the fabric is tucked into the soil and also in the 'trenches' where plants such as onions and carrots are growing in slits in the fabric rather than individual holes. It doesn't take too long to tidy this up especially after a spell of rain.  Compare this, however to the weed growth on a bed where the fabric wasn't used. After the short spell...