Charles Dowding begins to take you through every day, common weeds that you might find on your patch!

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Although we know that weeds are an important healing process for soil & they are useful in the right place, it's best to keep on top of them as much as you can on your patch. Charles will show you the ones you really need to keep an eye out for and how to effectively remove them without disturbing the no-dig bed. 

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Perennials & Rhizomes with creeping roots, grow deep and will persistently pop up new shoots all over your patch. Annual weeds are fast-growing and drop lots of seeds. 

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Ones to watch out for include:

Bindweed, a deep-rooted weed, use your trowel and see how its roots are dividing into potentially many more shoots. The more of the parent root you can get out, the less quickly it will spread. 

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Creeping Buttercup sends out little stems, get them out from the root, if not they will grow back even quicker.

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Couchgrass, grows from seed, with a thick blade. The difference between normal grass is that is has a creeping root & shoot system. Have a trowel handy so you can get this root from as low down as possible. It spreads down and to the sides! 

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Food for thought: Sometimes even things that are desirable, like Lupin, are worth thinning out if there are too many of them so you have more space for veggies and produce you can eat and harvest. Elderberry, this could have been dropped by a bird, and now it's gone to seed, make sure to catch them small and get rid of the saplings.

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