h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

We have an allotment. We also have two full time professional careers and a child and home to run. To be able to run our allotment we take short cuts. One of these short cuts entails using non-orgainc gardening.

Don't get me wrong, I think that organic horticulture is an admirable aim, but it is very labour intensive. When it comes to the point that you have to be down there every evening digging weeds out, then sometimes it's better just to get out the glyphosate. There is nothing particularly virtuous about having a 100% organic patch of jungle.

Totally agree with you there!

I went down to the allotment on Wednesday and looked at the state of the weeds. Felt like I had been punched in the gut! It was terrible. There are two things we can do... dig every last bit of twitch out of the ground and therefore be crippled with pain from the stiffness and no longer have a social life because we have been there all hours that God sends, or glyco the lot of it. I am tempted on the latter, but I think the former is probably better for me! I don't go to the gym, so digging weeds is better than nothing!

My late father-in-law was a man of complete and unimpeachable integrity as far as the environment is concerned having looked after much of the south of England for over 40 years in his job at the National Trust. He was 'environmentally aware' early in his career when it wasn't fashionable to be so. Philosophical and astute, he always took the long view. He was a true guardian of our environment. In his memory and honour, the National Trust planted a small wood for him.

When my wife and I first got our allotment it was a riot of bindweed. My father-in-law said the sensible thing to do was to use weedkiller. Who were we to argue? If it was good enough for him, it was good enough for us.

Bindweed is a bugger. It's resistant to most weedkillers, and glypho is the only one that will touch it to any major degree.

I have a back garden that has become overrun by a weed I call 'dogbreath': there is a lovely piccie of it (and the story of how it got its name) here: http://interoceter.blogspot.com/

It has a tap root, so hacking away at it only results in it coming back the following year: the floral equivalent of the Lernaean Hydra. I have had to blitz the entire back garden with glyphbo to get rid of it.

Wo FM

I reckon your Dogbreath is Alkanet(Pentaglottis Sempervirens).
Borage family as you say, and Plate 60 in Keble Martin if you have one.
Internet here for example (though lots of alternatives) :
http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/alkanet.htm

I reckon you're right, Pin. I'd managed to narrow it down to a borage of some kind. The 'sempervirens' in the Linnaean name fills mne with gloom as it means 'perpetually living', doesn't it? Or is that 'Sempervivum'?

What's Keble Martin?

Keble Martin was the author and illustrator of the Concise British Flora, published 1963. He painted 1500 different native and established species, pretty well everything that grows wild in Britain. It's probably the best single book for solving questions lie yours, though unfortunately it doesn't include advice on getting rid!

If you like, I'll show your photo to a friend/work colleague who'll confirm this for sure, because wild flowers are his hobby. (He's a pretty senior research metallurgist in a well-known company, though, so I'd better be careful not to 'out' him)

Not sure he'll approve of the glycophosphate , mind.

OH, the Latin. You definitely need someone else to answer that one, I'm afraid...

Yes please, do that, I would appreciate it.

I'm sure he'd approve of glypho if he had to deal with the stuff!

Will do

Here in the states we don't have allotments but hubby & I do have a garden that we work in together. I want to try to keep going the all-natural root. I am researching natural weed killers as I want to be able to eat things grown in any of the soil. We have a large yard, so I have committed myself to a lot here.

I would assume that an allotment is the equivalent of a community garden where people rent available spaces.

Certainly is. The local council owns the land and rents it out for a nominal fee each year.

*Wanders in and totally agrees with the openning post*

I have had an allottment since last november. I spent many a damp and cold winter's day digging and turning and weeding and trying to remove the bindweed and buttercup carpet. I got it looking fairly clear too. But within a couple of months, it was all back along with a goodly crop of annuals too. Nearly broke my heart after all that work. We too have jobs and kids and a home and garden to look after so have *very* reluctantly waved goodbye to our high ideals af a totally organic plot. We still don't use fertilizer other than our own compost and the stuff we get off a woman with two shirehorses, but the weedkiller has become essential if we want to grow anything other than weeds.

Oh, and as for that Joe chap on Gardener's world - managing his allottment seems to be part of his job now, lucky man, and the other week he has two RHS experts come down and help him out. No wonder his plot looks all blinking perfect!

Still, really enjoying what broad beans the rabbits have left us...