This year I have struggled with the weeds, as fast as I hoe them they reappear. A wise man once said “one years seeds, seven years weeds” and my plot was seriously neglected when I got it. The weeds certainly had set a copious amount of seeds. Someone else once told me “nature abhors a vacuum” so taking that on board I have started to cover areas that I have weeded and not using just now with manure/straw.
Raised bed before being filled with compost
I am also making raised beds. These should help me to maintain the plot with the pathways between them hopefully meaning less weeds. I’m making the beds out of scrap wood that I can beg so it’s a slow process, at the time of writing this I have made five beds. They are roughly ten foot long by three foot wide with pathways either side to allow for easy access to water, weed or pick crops. Eventually I will have sixteen raised beds, four in each section with the raspberries dividing the middle of the plot horizontally, and I am creating a rhubarb bed at the end of the plot adjacent to my shed.
