I did some weeding last night. All over the back garden, there’s hundreds of these bloody weed things. Every week or two they’ll flower, and look quite decorative. But they’re still weeds.
The push mower can’t handle them. They see it coming, lie down, then pop back up again when it’s gone past. Well, most of them do that. A few kamikaze weeds do leap into the mower, only to wind themselves around the ends of the main axle, to jam up the works.
So I put on my gardening gloves and pulled a bunch of them out. After about 15 minutes, I’d cleared maybe 5% of the garden.
Is there a mechanised way of doing this? Some kind of device that can pull up weeds for you? I’ll go looking the next time I’m at Bunnings.
8 replies on “Pain in the grass”
If they are onion weeds or something as vicious as onion weeds then it is pointless pulling them out and you need to take other action. I have similar problems with unknown species of plants appearing in my minimalist garden. They are driving me insane. Am taking samples to the nursery with me next time I go to see what they are and what preventative action (if any) can be taken to rid myself of them once and for all. I have a sneaking suspicion that some of the culprits may be date palm seeds dropped by birds and taking root whereever they land. Awful, awful things.
An automated weeder? They’re called rotary hoes. All the weeds disappear in seconds. Or you could use a broad-spectrum herbacide like Roundup™. I think you’ll find that doing it by hand is safer and more rewarding ‘tho.
Maybe the Greeks have a point with all their cement ;)
What about one of those weed wand things
There’s some kind of extension grabber gizmo you can get with spiky claws that you can use to pull up weeds. I’m thinking of getting one myself – we’ve got some monster weeds. This isn’t the one I’ve seen in Bunnings, but it’s the same idea: http://www.inventionchannel.com/product/product.jsp?productID=96
There is not an easy way. Weeds which produce seed need to be pulled out before there seeds are ready to be released. Over a period of years, weeds that have bulbs or rhizomes in the soil and reproduce by division, (pulling out, digging or rotarty hoeing is a bad idea for these) can be eliminated by dipping an artist size paint brush in Zero or Round Up and just touching a leaf. YOu need two types of chemical weed killers, a contact weed killer and a glyphosphate. Weeds growing in paving can be treated the same, but pouring boiling water on them is an eco friendly way to deal with them.
Yep goto Bunnings, but not in Town. Very sad. Maybe we could hold a wake outside the shop.