Page 28 - ALG Issue 4 2014 Digital Edition

Expert guide to...
Fat hen
Weeds can feed your plants too. Think about those real problems....bindweed, ground elder, marestail, couch .... they all have deep long ranging roots. If those roots run that far, they pick up trace elements that other plants cannot reach....so use! You can soak or boil them to extract the nutrients – probably soaking is easiest; find yourself a big waterbutt or old dustbin, and stuff it with roots, cover with water and leave it till it gets smelly. It’ll stink, but don’t let that worry you. Strain off the liquid and dilute it to the colour of weak tea or poor-quality lager, depending on your beverage of choice and water it onto your plants as a tonic.
Marestail is particularly useful, as it’s rich in silica, which when applied to living tissue creates an environment which discourages the development of fungal spores, and this is why it’s used by biodynamic growers
to discourage potato blight. It won’t cure blight once it’s started, but it is worth using as an extra defence booster. Spray the leaves thoroughly every 10 days or every
time it rains to keep the protective
silica layer intact,
as
Horsetail in tarmac
Anchusa arvensis at Shenstone
28
Teasel clover
Field Speedwell
heavy rain will wash it off.
Weeds feed predators too – don’t grow
nettles for butterflies, but grow them because they develop nettle aphids which are host specific (i.e. won’t spread to anything else) and emerge very early... easy food for ladybirds coming out of hibernation.
Field bindweed flowers are an excellent nectar source for hoverflies, whose larvae
eat aphids. A female hoverfly lays up to 100 eggs and each larva can eat
around 350 aphids before it grows up.
So how do you get rid of weeds?
Well, some are very difficult
to completely eradicate.... marestail has
been around since the Coal
Measures were being formed, so it’s not leaving anywhere in a hurry. Brambles and nettles will dig out, in time: couch
and greater bindweed do as well, just not as fast.
Field bindweed is a lot harder to remove
completely but if you
keep religiously removing any greenery it will become exhausted, and grow progressively smaller and smaller plants.....use the same method with ground elder or marestail too.
Building a bonfire on top of a good weedy clump (providing you’re allowed
to have bonfires on your plot) is pretty effective, as is a flame gun, provided you have the correct technique. The ideal is to first gently singe the ends so that the plant leaks sap to get the greatest desiccation. The best time to do this is warm, windy weather, with damp soil, so it oozes for
as long as possible. Repeat in a few
days, maybe two or three times for really aggressive plants. Finally, when it’s really looking shrivelled, blast it into a terminal burn – enjoy that feeling of power!
Mulching overgrown ground with layers of newspaper and/or cardboard helps bring roots to the surface as well as suppress weeds and is easy enough to do. It’s much better for your back and the soil texture than digging. Leaving paper down for two years gets rid of most things.
Last but not least, you might have something rare growing on your plot. If
you find a weed you don’t recognise, ask somebody who might know what it is – if you find something really rare, you might need to get in touch with your local Wildlife Trust. Records of such plants are important to botanists.