Page 19 - May 2020 parish mag_Classical

your garden. Move to a new area every day at them whilst they slowly meet their
until the garden is as free as possible of Waterloo!
weeds. Little and often is best. Spending
several hours, just weeding can make you Certain weeds are incredibly resistant to our
resentful and often leads to a lack of interest methods of killing them off. Bindweed and
in doing it again. If you do complete the couch grass being the most irritating of all.
weeding of your garden, to your satisfaction, One of my neighbours used to form a
you can look at it and feel a sense of wigwam with a few six-foot bamboo canes
achievement. Keep your foot on the pedal and stood the wigwam in an area where
though and start the process again. It will be bindweed was particularly aggressive. Over
easier the second time around. Most of the the course of several weeks, bindweed
weeds will have been removed during the climbed up the canes. My neighbour then
first weeding cycle and you will clear more sprayed weed killer over the whole wigwam,
ground in your ten-minute session. Using effectively wiping the bindweed out. It is a
the mowing of your lawn as an analogy, you good short-term option but repeat action will
mow the lawn maybe once a week during be inevitable. Weeding is an essential part
the Summer. You accept that as part of the of gardening life, I’m afraid.
gardening week. Think about weeding in the If you do not want to use conventional
same way, being part of your normal weedkillers, you may like to consider white
gardening routine. vinegar. The chemical name for the

During our isolation because of the compound known as vinegar is acetic acid,
Coronavirus, most people who have a [CH3COOH for the chemistry buffs
garden, will probably have more time to amongst us]. It is a weak acid. I have tried
spend in the garden during the day. white vinegar and it does work. You can buy
Achieving a more attractive and productive 20 litres online for £12 and you can dilute it
garden will give you a feeling of pride and to make it go further, but it can take time and
a sense of wellbeing. second applications are sometimes
necessary. I would tend to use it for
If you really cannot face weeding every day, individual weeds on patios, driveways and
one way to minimise it is to put down weed on borders. I would not weed large areas
suppressant material that allows water with it. It could become very expensive in
through, but cuts out light to weeds, thus, the long run. It is the only weed killer
slowly killing the weeds. It may take a allowed now in French gardens. How long
couple of years to eradicate weeds under the before the same is true here? The thinking is
material, but, at least, you do not have to look that overuse of traditional weed killers leads
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