I often get asked ‘what is a weed’? Well, a weed is just an unwanted plant but its growing in an unwanted place. Maybe its a seedling from another nearby plant or it might be something more pernicious that could cause real harm. Weeds will always be growing in gardens it’s just a case of ensuring they have fewer places to grow and do not establish themselves.

Try and avoid having bare patches of soil as this will allow weeds to take hold, when possible try and plug the gaps with ground covering plants or use bark mulch. If you have large areas of soil which you want to protect for a later project its best to use a weed membrane, carpet also works well.

The best approach is to get the weeds before they have time to take hold if you regularly hoe the ground this makes it very hard for the weed seedlings to take root. Always remember to try and get out the whole weed as often all it takes is a bit of broken root to be left and then the weed regrows!