To Hoe or Not?

[Rocket ScienceMember]

Today I had to tidy up and weed a bed of spinach which had been picked the day before. The spinach had grown very well and had a thick mulch of manure spread over it in winter so there were very few weeds to get rid of, mainly Ash seedlings and Sow Thistle which blew in. Growing up into the mulch were hundreds of very fine feeder roots sent out from the spinach plants growing only just below the surface. Noticed the same on Garlic. Although hand weeding occupied beds sometimes takes a little longer(and back ache) it really does give you a chance to look really closely at whats going on in the soil and had i used a hoe all those feeder roots would have been damaged. I also found a slug!

[charlesModerator]

 I have been finding the same Robin and have barely hoed my garlic for exactly that reason, except where there were patches of clover seedlings from the manure. 

I am intrigued that you are dry enought to hoe? Here is damp every day and no chance athough this weekend one could on any beds with many small seedling weeds. I am impressed that you found only one slug, perhaps because your soil is lighter than mine: I cut some Spring Hero cabbage and found half a dozen small grey ones in each, and my spinach has some holes. Plants are surviving but with some damage.

[Rocket ScienceMember]

Hi Charles, yes you are right it is too wet here also to use a hoe. Some of my pathways could do with weeding with a hoe but can wait until it dries up a bit. The mystery of why i have no slugs continues but now have two resident Thrushes on full time pest control for me! I found a snail only for the second time last week. I do make up for not having slugs with big numbers of cutworm attacks and Lettuce root aphid though. The last load of manure a had delivered last year has been full of weed seed, mainly Fat Hen, Buttercup and grass so have had to keep knocking it around with a rake as much as possible before planting beds covered in it. Won’t be using that farmer again. Might be a good tip for anyone needing manure to have a look at the farmers heap in summer and see what its like when things are growing in it!

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