SOMETIMES it may seem weeding is for wimps or for old hens who enjoy scratching about. Do real gardeners weed or has the 20th century finally taken care of all that old drudgery, banishing it forever with a barrage of chemicals, pellets, powder and liquids which, applied carefully, and according to manufacturers instructions, will make life blissfully easy and trouble-free. For those in a great hurry weedkillers are a boon and a release from the wilderness. Equally, for those with large spaces to contend with, they allow time for more of the niceties of gardening.
I do not shun weedkillers: they are a useful help in some parts and at some times, but we can learn much from organic methods and from old ways which were abandoned with alacrity once chemicals became available. For instance, among small trees, shrubs, roses and vegetables, where ground may need to be kept clean, depending on the taste and regime of the gardener, a mulch can be applied. Mulching - covering the ground between plants with an organic material to suppress weed growth - can be additionally beneficial in that it may help to feed and enrich the soil. Options include spent hops, brewers' grain, mushroom compost, straw or seaweed are a few of the choices which are effective in smothering weeds.
Mulching with garden compost or with farmyard manure, while it feeds the soil and helps retain moisture, will be of no help in weed control as these materials are rich in weed seed. Compost or manure is better dug well into the ground where its nutrients will be best availed of by plant and where weed seed will be denied light for germination.
Mulching will not suit all parts of the garden nor will the liberal distribution of weedkillers be possible around all plants. So the hoe comes into play or, where the weeds are well established, a spade to extricate them from among valued plants.
Now is the time to get moving, before a new growth gets too far ahead and before last year's seedling weeds engulf things of value. The hoe is useful but for the greater part the trowel will be a much more friendly tool, especially in flower borders or where any, shallow-rooted smaller plants are grown.
Kneeling on the ground without some protection is not to be recommended - if one is to enjoy the experience, a degree of comfort will be necessary. And this is an enjoyable business, regardless of what those who have never tried it may think.
ONLY closer encounters, kneeling with the trowel, will enable the gardener to begin to differentiate between friends and foes. This is an immensely satisfying contact for the gardener who can fill the bucket or basket with weeds and move and rearrange wanted seedlings as he or she wishes. A few buckets of weeds removed now will make life immeasurably more enjoyable in the coming months.