Weeding a garden

[Karen2005]

OK, I am a complete and utter novice gardener, but am keen to get started. My garden hasn't been weeded for a long time (at least a year - the time I have lived there).

There is an area at the end of the garden which I want to clear in order to plant some wild flower seeds. Now, this may be a stupid question, but how do I weed? I've got a spade, fork and hand tools. Do I just get in there and start digging? Someone once told me that you should be careful with the top soil and not take up too much or mix it in with the soil underneath. Any weeding tips gratefully received! Maybe I'm worrying about it too much and should just get stuck in!

[smudge]

If the soil isn't too hard, you could always use a Hoe, which makes it easier to remove the weeds. Have fun!

[Impret-Sir]

If you have no objection to using chemicals in your garden give the whole lot a good spraying with a weedkiller such as weedol and leave it alone until the worst of the weeds are going brown. Then dig the whole lot over with your fork, I have never heard of any reason why you should not mix top soil with the stuff underneath, if the garden has not been dug for ages then mixing it up will be a good idea, you will break up the soil serface, which will have become compacted, and allow air to get in, this will be good for any future planting. Go down to about a forks depth, break up the big clumps of soil and dig in some organic matter if you can, rotted leaves, well rotted horse or chicken manure, that kind of thing. Collect up as many of the bigger weeds as you can, be sure to get the roots as even a bit left behind will regrow. The smaller ones can be left on the soil serface with their roots exposed, they should die naturally and will add more organic matter to the soil. Then leave the whole lot alone for a while to settle down before you do your planting.

[Thunderbird+]

As smudge says, a hoe is a very useful tool for skimming off the weeds as they emerge, personally I prefere the dutch hoe, which is shaped rather like this 'Y' as apposed to the draw hoe what look more like ' �' if viewed from the side.

If your ground has not been turned over for a year, you may well have some deep rooted perenial weeds to remove, in which case I would recomend a border fork for this job,as you will need to dig out the roots, its similar to the standard digging fork but smaller and less tiresome to use. Weeds that have long stringy roots like bellbine, couch grass, ground elder and creeping thistles will all need digging out, as even small pieces can regrow. A bit late now but an old gardener gave me some good advice, many years ago- An hours weeding in the winter is worth 5 hours in the summer.

If its wildflower seeds you want to sow, then I would recomend annuals to start with as they are far easier, as apposed to primulas which can take two years to germinate. There are many seed mixes available that will attract wildlife like bees to a hoey pot, flowers of the north Americam prairies, just cant be beaten to my mind, but you need to prepair a fine tilth to get em going Good Luck

[Thunderbird+]

I did'nt ignor your answer interpret-sir, its just that i did'nt see it, I hed to reconect a couple of times too!!

[Robinia]

Well for wild flowers I really don't think digging is necessary - I don't like digging anyway so any excuse :o)

First of all I'd go round & pull up any small weeds that come away easily. Next, any tough deep rooted ones can be taken out with a fork/spade whatever works best for you. Then you can very lightly fork over the suface or loosen it with a hoe & sow your seeds.

[Impret-Sir]

lol, no offence taken thunderbird!