Awful weeds following garden renovation (pics included)

[cdba88]

Hi all,

I have an extremely weedy section of soil in my garden. Its impossible to keep on top of and it's driving me insane please could I have some advice?

Before we bought the house the garden was left untouched for years so I think the root systems are really well established. We renovated the garden last year, had a digger in to get rid of the weeds and top layer of soil then added new top soil.

Last month we spent the full weekend deweeding and levelling the problem area. We spent a few hundred pounds on new shrubs and plants and planted them all. I've been going out about twice a week and weeding anything that pops up. There are so many! On the surface they look tiny, I try to dig them out but under the soil the roots are huge and so thick. So much so I'm often unable to dig far enough down without snapping it.

Weed fabric doesn't work they just grow right through if. I've tried weed killer but it doesn't seem to help and I don't want it to kill my new plants.

Any ideas? I'll try to post some pics.

It's the soily hill against the back fence. Gardens still a work in progress so excuse the mess!

As you can see the soil quality is awful. But it certainly doesn't stop the weeds! It's really clear in that picture as I've been out this morning. You can see pile of weeds I removed in and around the blue bucket.

The shrubs look happy. It's peak growing season and you have bare earth - evolution dictates that stuff is going to grow on it.

From the pick I can't see what the weeds are. Can you identify them, or post a close-up picture?

Most things will give up if you continually keep weeding, but you have to keep going for ages.

Try cardboard or double-layered weed fabric? Also bark chippings or similar can help suppress (and look smart)

And/or, change your standards on what counts as 'weed'. E.g. We have an ongoing debate about forget-me-not. Also welsh poppy.

And/or plant some ground cover that you like, to out-compete the weeds? Try a job lot of annuals & put them in this weekend. Something that spreads - bacopa does well round us and can stretch to perennial-ish.

Use a hoe keep evicting them that way as they appear. Quicker and easier. Quick once over weekly will do it

Weeds grow, you have to keep on top of them often. I can't see terrible weed problem or a huge pile of weeds in your photo.

Weeds grow. It's part of having a garden.

What you really need to do is to plant loads of things in that bare soil, as nature will fill it if you don't. Also establish what weeds you have as that will determine the best way to get rid of them. If they are perennials then you have to dig the roots out. If they are annuals you can just hoe and leave them on the surface to die. If they are bindweed then you are unlikely to ever get rid. You will just have to accept that you will have to do it all regularly anyway - as weeds grow. That's what they do.

What you could do is to cover the whole bed with weed fabric after levelling it all. And then cut holes for the plants, and then cover that with a mulch. That will certainly cut down on weeds growing.

Quality weed fabric and mulch will kill what's under it off and then you could just dig in where you add new plants.

You could remove and renew the soil, but as pp said, it's the time of year you do constantly battle weeds, it might not make much difference.

Add LOTS more plants and weed membrane. Then add bark chippings. A good weed every couple of weeks after that should be enough. Top up the bark chippings every year.

You have a large amount of bare soil so of course weeds will grow, if you don’t want them to grow you need to cover the exposed soil. This is just what happens in a garden.

When I got my first garden, I was shocked by how quickly weeds shot up at this time of year!
Blink and another one's poking through the soil...
Afraid that's just the nature of bare soil, plus warmth, sun and a bit of rain.

We completely suppressed the weeds when we put down weed membrane and bark chips. We just overlapped cut strips around all the shrubs we planted and the weeds have never grown back. Best thing we ever did. We did buy mature shrubs though so they were around 3 years old so we didn't have large sparse areas of soil.

I had to zoom in a lot to find the “huge” pile of weeds 😁
When the soil is disturbed you get lots of seeds germinating, so you will get weeds coming up.
The problem is too much bare soil - it’s not realistic to keep soil bare. You need to plant things or it will be filled with weeds.

I often ask myself how much I mind a particular weed, because if I take it out, a more objectionable one might fill the space.

Yes this is my first garden so I have no idea!

Ok bark is on offer at b&q so I've ordered 4 100L bags and some heavy duty weed membrane. The bark will look much better as well.

We're only planning on staying in this house for 1 more year so I'm conscious I don't want to overspend on shrubs/plants I can't take with me. I will plant some more though as it does look a bit bare.
I planted quite a few annuals yesterday but they're tiny and not flowering yet so you can't see them.

I have no idea what the weeds are. I'll work on identifying them that's a great tip that I hadn't even thought of.

Thanks!!

There's a weed with a red stem, green leaves and cute pink flowers which seems to spread quite fast but I don't mind it so much as it looks pretty!

I know the pile of weeds isn't that big but considering I completely cleared it on Friday i was shocked to get all that up today!

That sounds like it could be a kind of willowherb. You could leave some of that and just pull it out after it’s flowered so it doesn’t set seed.

Sounds like red robin - it is shallow rooted but quick to spread

If you have an Android phone you can take a photo and then get Google lens to identify it for you

Glyphosate will cleanse all!

Its a systemic herbicide so is taken down to the root and will kill everything it touches. You can be selective in its application...you just have to take your time.

That's it! Comes up really easily too.

One of its other names is stinking Bob - it smells like old wet tyres 🛞 😂

I went to an RHS garden a few weeks ago where they had used ragged robin in the planting. Think of it as a “wild flower” rather than a weed if it makes you happier to let it stay.

Ignore my post - I misread red robin for ragged robin.

Sounds like herb robert to me.
I've embraced the weeds in my garden and most of the gaps are now filled with primroses. It's my weed barrier

I second hoeing.

I watched Monty do this properly and adopted that approach - and it’s halved my weeding time (we have a very big garden). Hold the hoe at the right angle so the plate is flat to the ground and…. Not sure what the technical term is…but scritch scritch scritch back and forth. Leave.

come back 24 hours later and pick all the wilting, detached weeds up.

it weakens the roots of the weeds.

it’s helped my garden so much and my back. I wish I knew earlier!

@Mykittensmittens scritch scritch scritch 😂 love it.

Been an bought a load more plants today. Some perennials and a load of annual bedding pants. Planted them today and will start the cardboard, weed fabric and bark tomorrow.

Dreading it!

I also recommend hoeing. And if you've got an iphone you can take a photo of a weed, press the i button on the menu of the photo and it will identify it.