Reed grass

Julie · Reed grass

I hate those clumps of reed grass that appear wherever there is a wet area, and to see land go to ruin by people who never feed it or let it run to weeds. I've just spent a half hour getting rid of this years batch using a simple, green method taught to me years ago. I thought it might be of some interest to someone else so I'm passing it on.
All you do is lift them with a fork and turn the whole clump uspide down, burying all the stalks and leaving the roots at the top. It kills it stone dead and doesn't leave a hole in the field. If you make it an annual job and get them when they are small, it's a doddle to do - you could even delegate the job to the kids, they'll love jumping up and down on the clods to flatten them out. The grass soon spreads back over the bare patch.
If you have a lot of them, it is no hardship to do ten a day until they're all gone.
Those giant prickly thistles are even easier to get shot of. Just take a spade or hoe and cut them off just below ground level. They won't grow back apparently.

Smooth Hound

ill add a bit here , the thistles, especially the creeping thistles, if you cut them down in late june, then that is the time when most of the goodness has been sucked up from the roots into the plant, so if you chop them down at that time then it weekens the root system, a couple of years of doing that and they will go, but you mustnt cut them down before that, as the goodness is still in the roots.

Julie

I'll remember that one!!
I usually attack them with the strimmer before they get seed heads.
Have you got any tips for nettles? I don't mind them in the right place but not in my fields. I usually strim them too, is there a best time to do that?