Some websites I found invaluable when I first got my allotment and started to garden on a larger scale

I used Glyphosate with the initial clearing at the back of my plot, which was thick with brambles and seedlings. The front was all couch grass that I dug over and removed the roots by hand.. Inch by Inch Foot by Foot.

Yes that’s still a painful memory but well worth the effort..

Garden weeds can be a real problem. The Garden Advice team explain how to deal with the 3 most difficult garden weeds.

Get your free guide on controlling garden weeds written by the GardenAdvice team

Horsetail or Marestail
( Equisetum arvense )

This is one of the most difficult weeds to eradicate in the garden situation. Once spotted to is important to go to work immediately to eradicate it. A perennial weed which grows in a wide variety of places from, boggy ground to sand dunes. It has two types of growth, in spring brown asparagus-like shoots appear with cones at the tips and these produce spores. Later the more familiar thin green, branched stems appear and these remain until the winter. Both are produced from creeping underground rhizomes, which go down about 1.5 metres.

It is resistant to most weedkillers, but Glyphosate may have some success after repeated treatment. The GardenAdvice team has had some success by crushing the stems to break the waxy surface and then applying Glyphosate in the form of round up with a small paintbrush. Glyphosate has the advantage of keeping the plant alive whilst the chemical travels from one cell to another in the plant before killing it. Persistent applications will kill it after 5 months.

Hedge and field Bindweed
( Calystegia sepium and Convolvulus arvensis)

Bindweed is a difficult plant to control, however with the use of glyphosate it is possible to eradicate it fairly quickly.

It’s a climbing herbaceous perennial, spreading by creeping underground stems, which root readily into virgin soil. Before the use of chemicals such as glyphosate digging it out was the best way to control it. The main problem with this method is that every small piece of root left turned into a new plant. With the roots being brittle it is almost impossible to remove the entire root, so inevitable after a short period of time the problem returned only this time it had become at least twice the size. As with horse’s tail it is best to apply the glyphosate with a small paintbrush directly to the leaves. Unlike horses tail it should only take one or two applications to control the bindweed.

Other methods include hoeing repeatedly to exhaust the bindweed as new stems appear. The two different types of bind weed as self-explanatory. One is more inclined to climb that the other but the control is the same.

Couch grass
(Dog’s Grass, Twitch)
(Agropyrum repens, syn. Elymus repens)

The most common of our difficult weeds the couch grass is a perennial grass with creeping underground stems with small fibrous roots at every joint.

You can find couch grass in most gardens, under hedges at the back of the borders. It’s not a major problem until it becomes unchecked. Then over a period of time it takes a firm grip and starts to spread rampantly
On large areas containing couch or in-between shrubs the GardenAdvice team tend to roughly. Then allow the remaining roots to re-shoot we spray with glyphosate and allow the systemic action to kill the couch over a period of about 6 weeks. As with bind weed two applications might be needed…

Good resources…

Identifying and controlling garden weeds .

Slug and Snail Trail.

Pest and disease control center

The good guys.. Beneficial insects found in your garden

RHS Gardening Site

BBC Pest and Disease identifier

Carrot Fly

Leek Moth

Potato pests and diseases

Here is a summary of the main pests and diseases that you may encounter on your Allotment – it is  not meant to be a comprehensive list:

• flea beetle (can attack seedlings in April, particularly brassica and radish)
• slugs & snails at any time of year
• sawfly – caterpillar that munches its way through gooseberry foliage around May time
• asparagus beetle – the grubs eat their way through asparagu foliage usually in late May and June
• caterpillar – there are various types but the one that causes the most problems is the cabbage white butterfly which will quickly decimate brassica foliage from late June and July
• aphids – black, white, and green are the most troublesome. They will appear in the first warm spell of the year, usually sometime during May
• pea moth – maggots found in peas, usually a problem between early June and early August
• carrot fly – the maggot burrows down and into the carrot – attacks can occur from late May to early September
• leek moth – the maggot tunnels down a leaf towards the centre of the plant, usually a problem from July to September.

• potato blight – usually more of a problem on outdoor tomatoes. It may not affect tomatoes until  August/ September but in a poor summer it can appear as early as the end of June / beginning of July
• downy mildew – affects onions, appearing in late June or early July
• american mildews affect gooseberries – usually during May
• mildew on courgettes, marrows and cucumbers – damp weather and poor air circulation can bring this on.
• onion white rot – is a soil-borned disease. It causes the roots to rot and the underside of the bulb
• clubroot – is another soil-borne disease that can be found in patches where brassicas have been grown continuously in same spot without rotation. It distorts the roots of brassica plants.