Organic Gardening

If you are starting a brand new garden, taking over a weed-infested one or incorporating a new area, the first stage in weed control is to make the ground as clean as possible right from the start. First, clear the ground completely by digging it, removing weeds as you progress. Then cover the ground; sow the lawn area and plant a "cleaning crop" in the borders.

Begin by digging over the whole site and removing as much as you possibly can. If the ground is infested with one of the more pernicious weeds, like couch grass (Agropyron repens) or ground elder (Aegopodium podagraria), you should not expect to win first time as any tiny piece of root that is left in the soil may multiply to form a massive root again.

Annual weeds can then be put on to the compost heap provided they have not been allowed to seed. Roots of other perennial weeds, those that continue year after year, such as dandelions (Taraxacum officinale), and docks (Rumex sp.) should be removed and destroyed. Never put any perennial weeds on the compost heap because they will only be transplanted again when you spread the compost.

If you plan to lay a lawn, the area can be sown straight away after digging. Even if the weeds do come through again, regular use of a mower will eventually eradicate all but the "rosetted" types like dandelions and daisies which grow close to the ground. They are easy to control afterwards by simply dropping a pinch of table salt into the center of the rosette or by digging them out of the lawn with a penknife. You may have to repeat the process a few times but they will disappear.

Areas planned for ornamental borders or vegetable and fruit plots, in fact any bare soil, should be planted for the first year with a "cleaning crop". There is none better than potatoes, which will not only help clean the soil of weeds but will pay for themselves into the bargain. Potatoes have two great virtues as a cleaning crop. First of all their cultivation entails turning over the soil three times in the year - once when they are planted, a second time when they are earthed up and finally at harvest time. Secondly, they grow a dense canopy of leaves which excludes the light from any weeds that may be bold enough to try to compete. Together, starvation of light and not being allowed a foothold encourage most weeds to give up the ghost.

Nonetheless, some weeds still survive. Plants that climb by twining round their competitors, such as bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis), will not be crowded out so easily. Their climbing habit enables them to reach the sunlight even through a dense canopy of leaves, so they can always make enough food to store in their labyrinthine root system. So, in the second year, you will still have problems. But, on a small scale, they are not difficult to overcome.