Hi,

I'm looking for advice on whether my idea for clearing my back garden
of weeds in feasible.

Having left the garden for two years whilst the house has been
extended, we are now ready to remodel the garden. As you can imagine it
is now overgrown with all sorts of weeds and at around 150 square
metre's I'm not going to do it by hand! So in order to bring back
the garden into some kind of state where I can start gardening it
properly, I've devised a cunning plan.

The plan is in two parts. Part one is to dose the whole lot with
lashings of glyphosphate (Roundup 5L with its own sprayer) to kill off
all the weeds including the roots. Part two is to hire a flame gun and
burn off all the now dead vegetation leaving bare soil covered with a
fine dressing of ash.

My concern is that the burning won't remove the dead weeds, but will
leave them charred and very dead but still standing. Some of these are
6-foot tall!

Would it be better to rotovate the dead weeds after the weedkiller
stage or will the flame gun reduce them to ashes?

wrote:

The plan is in two parts. Part one is to dose the whole lot with
lashings of glyphosphate (Roundup 5L with its own sprayer) to kill off
all the weeds including the roots. Part two is to hire a flame gun and
burn off all the now dead vegetation leaving bare soil covered with a
fine dressing of ash.

You be careful. If you kill that lot, and let it dry, and then
set fire to it, you will get the most humungous conflagration
that will not only clear the weeds, but your fences too. Do
you remember what it was like when burning of stubble from
cereal crops was allowed?

In article . com,
writes:
|
| I'm looking for advice on whether my idea for clearing my back garden
| of weeds in feasible.

Chris Bacon says no, and I agree.

| Having left the garden for two years whilst the house has been
| extended, we are now ready to remodel the garden. As you can imagine it
| is now overgrown with all sorts of weeds and at around 150 square
| metre's I'm not going to do it by hand! So in order to bring back
| the garden into some kind of state where I can start gardening it
| properly, I've devised a cunning plan.

The last words of a great many people :-)

It depends slightly on the sort of weeds, but it is always better
to cut them down first and dispose of the residue. 150 square
metres of herbaceous weeds would take only a few hours with a
sickle, but the same area of two year old brambles and tree
saplings might take a weekend. A person used to the job would
do it a lot faster, of course.

You could hire a strimmer for the latter, but you might need one
with a metal blade, and they can remove your foot if used
carelessly. Don't bother with the cheap electric ones with
plastic string, as they are a complete waste of time.

After having burnt, composted or green binned the residue, let
the area green up, and THEN hit it with glyphosate. Possibly
twice, with a month between. There is little point in using
that either on mature weeds or on the place where they were.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

In article . com,
writes
Hi,

I'm looking for advice on whether my idea for clearing my back garden
of weeds in feasible.

Having left the garden for two years whilst the house has been
extended, we are now ready to remodel the garden. As you can imagine it
is now overgrown with all sorts of weeds and at around 150 square
metre's I'm not going to do it by hand! So in order to bring back
the garden into some kind of state where I can start gardening it
properly, I've devised a cunning plan.

The plan is in two parts. Part one is to dose the whole lot with
lashings of glyphosphate (Roundup 5L with its own sprayer) to kill off
all the weeds including the roots. Part two is to hire a flame gun and
burn off all the now dead vegetation leaving bare soil covered with a
fine dressing of ash.

Why bother? They'll rot naturally. Dig them in if you're really fussed.

My concern is that the burning won't remove the dead weeds, but will
leave them charred and very dead but still standing. Some of these are
6-foot tall!

the problem isn't the height but the woodiness.


--
Kay
"Do not insult the crocodile until you have crossed the river"

wrote:

I'm looking for advice on whether my idea for clearing my back garden
of weeds in feasible.

It all depends how flammable your boundary fences, trees are... and
whether or not there are any local prohibitions on garden fires.

Having left the garden for two years whilst the house has been
extended, we are now ready to remodel the garden. As you can imagine it
is now overgrown with all sorts of weeds and at around 150 square
metre's I'm not going to do it by hand! So in order to bring back
the garden into some kind of state where I can start gardening it
properly, I've devised a cunning plan.

150m^2 isn't too bad to do by hand. A good pair of secateurs, a scythe
and a pruning saw will get most things on a plot that size.

The plan is in two parts. Part one is to dose the whole lot with
lashings of glyphosphate (Roundup 5L with its own sprayer) to kill off
all the weeds including the roots. Part two is to hire a flame gun and
burn off all the now dead vegetation leaving bare soil covered with a
fine dressing of ash.

This will work, although you probably want to buy glyphosate in
concentrated form and have a wand type sprayer to use exclusively for
weedkillers. Let the stuff die off and become tinder dry (about 1 month).

Then make some fire breaks and torch it in suitable sized bonfires. You
will not need a flame gun if you wait until everything is very dry and
ready to burn. You may need buckets of water and a spade to control the
spread of fire. Grass fires spread quickly.

Some weeds are tougher than others. I find buttercup can recolonise
glyphosated rough ground very quickly. You are unlikely to see off
bramble, groundelder, horsetail, bindweed or thistle in a single go.

My concern is that the burning won't remove the dead weeds, but will
leave them charred and very dead but still standing. Some of these are
6-foot tall!

Cut them down and make a bonfire much more control that way.

Would it be better to rotovate the dead weeds after the weedkiller
stage or will the flame gun reduce them to ashes?

Depends on the weeds. Thistle and ground elder thrive on such treatment
you will get one new plant for every 6mm piece of root left in the soil.

Regards,
Martin Brown

The message
from (Nick Maclaren) contains these words:


In article . com,
writes:
|
| I'm looking for advice on whether my idea for clearing my back garden
| of weeds in feasible.

Chris Bacon says no, and I agree.

| Having left the garden for two years whilst the house has been
| extended, we are now ready to remodel the garden. As you can imagine it
| is now overgrown with all sorts of weeds and at around 150 square
| metre's I'm not going to do it by hand! So in order to bring back
| the garden into some kind of state where I can start gardening it
| properly, I've devised a cunning plan.

The last words of a great many people :-)

It depends slightly on the sort of weeds, but it is always better
to cut them down first and dispose of the residue. 150 square
metres of herbaceous weeds would take only a few hours with a
sickle, but the same area of two year old brambles and tree
saplings might take a weekend. A person used to the job would
do it a lot faster, of course.

You could hire a strimmer for the latter, but you might need one
with a metal blade, and they can remove your foot if used
carelessly. Don't bother with the cheap electric ones with
plastic string, as they are a complete waste of time.

After having burnt, composted or green binned the residue, let
the area green up, and THEN hit it with glyphosate. Possibly
twice, with a month between. There is little point in using
that either on mature weeds or on the place where they were.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

Another alternative is to cover the whole lot with horse shit and then
sheet it with black polythene. Get to autumn and rotovate, rotovate and
more rotovate. Then all next year let them germinate for a week or so,
then rotovate continue ad-lib for a year or 3 and might make an
impression.

Whats the old saying, seed for a year, weed for seven?

I`m not envious at all.

"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...
carelessly. Don't bother with the cheap electric ones with
plastic string, as they are a complete waste of time.


I've got one of those and it's good for grass but anything woody does snap
the 'plastic string' a lot. I wonder though - what's to stop me taking the
plastic string off, rewinding it with something stronger like galvanised
straining wire and using it like that?

--
Martin & Anna Sykes
( Remove x's when replying )
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~sykesm

The message . com
from contains these words:


The plan is in two parts. Part one is to dose the whole lot with
lashings of glyphosphate (Roundup 5L with its own sprayer) to kill off
all the weeds including the roots. Part two is to hire a flame gun and
burn off all the now dead vegetation leaving bare soil covered with a
fine dressing of ash.

When weedkiller optimistically says "will treat 150 square metres",
they mean, of mown lawn, or gravel driveway. To kill 6ft tall plants you
would need a lot more volume to hit most of their leaf-area, with a
spray applied at the same level as your face :-(. You then have a 6ft
tall, 10 by 15 metre tinderbox. I wouldnt operate a flamegun in that
situation if you paid me, and I've had 20 years practice.

Slash, rake and either dispose of the brash or burn it. When you've
cleared the ground to green stubble, stamp it flat all over, and cover
it completely with old cardboardor carpet or tarpaulins or whatever you
can get that's free and excludes all light. This will finalise the
death/decomposition of any remaining weeds and prevent two years worth
of weed seeds germinating .

Janet.

The message
from "Martin Sykes" contains
these words:

I've got one of those and it's good for grass but anything woody does snap
the 'plastic string' a lot. I wonder though - what's to stop me taking the
plastic string off, rewinding it with something stronger like galvanised
straining wire and using it like that?

In a word, shrapnel.

--
Rusty
Emus to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

The message
from Chris Bacon contains these words:

wrote:

The plan is in two parts. Part one is to dose the whole lot with
lashings of glyphosphate (Roundup 5L with its own sprayer) to kill off
all the weeds including the roots. Part two is to hire a flame gun and
burn off all the now dead vegetation leaving bare soil covered with a
fine dressing of ash.

You be careful. If you kill that lot, and let it dry, and then
set fire to it, you will get the most humungous conflagration
that will not only clear the weeds, but your fences too. Do
you remember what it was like when burning of stubble from
cereal crops was allowed?

Oh yes! If you spray with un-got-at sodium chlorate solution, then wait
for it to dry, a match (or even a fiery glance) will ignite the lot, and
you'll have a mushroom cloud burgeoning over the plot.

From the distance of about a mile I saw that happen to a field of
several acres: it was ignited by something like a bit of bottle-glass
and the sun's rays, and the mushroom cloud rose several hundred feet.

But then, pure sodium chlorate with vegetable matter becomes an
explosive, and ignorant or injudicious use of it presents a very real
danger...

--
Rusty
Emus to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

The message
from "Martin Sykes" contains
these words:



"Nick Maclaren" wrote in message
...
carelessly. Don't bother with the cheap electric ones with
plastic string, as they are a complete waste of time.


I've got one of those and it's good for grass but anything woody does snap
the 'plastic string' a lot. I wonder though - what's to stop me taking the
plastic string off, rewinding it with something stronger like galvanised
straining wire and using it like that?

Common sense and self-preservation?

The resistance encountered by the wire on heavier material would
probably burn out the motor. If it didn't, you wouldn't want a little
bit of high-velocity wire breaking off on a hidden stone and meeting
your bod.


Janet.

In article ,
Janet Baraclough writes:
|
| The resistance encountered by the wire on heavier material would
| probably burn out the motor. If it didn't, you wouldn't want a little
| bit of high-velocity wire breaking off on a hidden stone and meeting
| your bod.

Considering the number of people who seem to get turned on by
having unusual parts of their body pierced with metal, I wouldn't
be so certain. I agree that using a strimmer to do that is
kinky even by modern tastes, but there's no accounting for tastes.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

The message
from (Nick Maclaren) contains these words:
In article ,
Janet Baraclough writes:
|
| The resistance encountered by the wire on heavier material would
| probably burn out the motor. If it didn't, you wouldn't want a little
| bit of high-velocity wire breaking off on a hidden stone and meeting
| your bod.

Considering the number of people who seem to get turned on by
having unusual parts of their body pierced with metal, I wouldn't
be so certain. I agree that using a strimmer to do that is
kinky even by modern tastes, but there's no accounting for tastes.

I know a lady doctor who tells a painful tale of the bloke who claimed
he was vacuuming the stairs with a Hoover Dustette, déshabillé, and who
sustained dreadful injuries to - um - well, to have fitted, it *MUST*
have been a bit of a weed...

...to keep on topic.

--
Rusty
Emus to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

The message
from Martin contains these words:
On Wed, 29 Jun 2005 17:02:40 +0100, Jaques d'Alltrades
wrote:
The message

I know a lady doctor who tells a painful tale of the bloke who claimed
he was vacuuming the stairs with a Hoover Dustette, déshabillé, and who
sustained dreadful injuries to - um - well, to have fitted, it *MUST*
have been a bit of a weed...

..to keep on topic.

New Scientist circa 1982.

Probably happened a number of times - this particular doc was a hospital
doctor, and was I think, in A&E at the time.

Mind you, it could well have been the same chopp - er - chopping.

--
Rusty
Emus to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co full-stop uk
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/hi-fi/

On Wed, 29 Jun 2005 21:09:57 +0100, Jaques d'Alltrades
wrote:

The message
from Martin contains these words:
On Wed, 29 Jun 2005 17:02:40 +0100, Jaques d'Alltrades
wrote:
The message

I know a lady doctor who tells a painful tale of the bloke who claimed
he was vacuuming the stairs with a Hoover Dustette, déshabillé, and who
sustained dreadful injuries to - um - well, to have fitted, it *MUST*
have been a bit of a weed...

..to keep on topic.

New Scientist circa 1982.

Probably happened a number of times - this particular doc was a hospital
doctor, and was I think, in A&E at the time.

Mind you, it could well have been the same chopp - er - chopping.


Some of those devices have a fan inside with nasty sharp metal blades.
People should check the clearance before inserting things (or
accidentally sucking them in whilst vacuuming the stairs).