Gardener's question time

[Cloudy]

Evening all

The little house I own has a small lump of soil at the back, so I thought this year I'd try my hand at growing a few of my own veg. Bear in mind I know nothing about gardening!

Up until a week ago there were knee high weeds in there, now I've got most of them up, and forked and raked the soil over. My question to all you veteran gardeners is should I use weedkiller before planting any vegetables or is sufficient to just plant and keep weeding? There were a lot of weeds in there but I'm a little concerned weedkiller will also kill any of my soil's nutrients, or am I being daft?

Any pointers will do, plus pics of your own produce, etc, can't hurt

[twinkle]

Don't use weedkiller!

[veganbikerboy]

try the vegan organic network

www.veganorganic.net

i am in the process of trying to learn gardening, i'm good at patios and ponds but plants

[twinkle]

Hehe, I just thought I'd get that in quick.

I know very little about gardening either, but anything that sloshes poison around is bad in my book. Get yourself a nice book on organic gardening. Better still, get yourself a nice book on veganic gardening and/or permaculture

Look up "plants for a future" - I've got the book by Ken Fern (it's an organisation as well) and although I haven't put any of it into practice (my garden is about 5 feet long) it's a fascinating read.

[Cloudy]

Hehe thought I might get that response

Ok you've talked me into it, no weedkiller! The soil looks quite nutrient dense (especially judging by the size of the weeds I cut down) so I can hopefully get some produce out of it. Fingers crossed.

Come on Cedar, aren't you a keen gardener?

[rantipole]

To prevent weeds from growing, cover your garden in newspaper and then cover than in 4-6 inches of hay. Make holes in this covering just big enough to stick your plants in. This covering also holds a lot of moisture, so you can use a little less when you water. The newspaper and hay will decompose into nutrients over time. Each year, you'll need to replenish both of these. It may sound weird, but it does work.

Cheers,
rant