The plot is looking unusually bare this year. I missed the deadline for successful germination of Crimson Clover so sections C and D are bare earth but easy to hoe. All the summer crops are finished. There is still a good supply of fresh organics for the kitchen; beetroot, parsnips, leeks, winter cabbage, sprouts and swedes.

Weeds are always a problem on allotments.. As I've said several times before, the best way is just to keep on top of them with hoeing and hand weeding. I clearly remember one plot with new plot holders. Great enthusiasm in the spring with about a fifth of the plot dug over and seeds sown. The hopefuls seemed to that that was all that was needed until harvest time. Not surprisingly, by that time the plot had a luxurious growth of weeds. I was on my plot when they came back to harvest. "Bloody hell, where did these come from!" There wasn't much to harvest and they gave up the plot. Another new plot holder believed that a crop of potatoes "Clears the ground". The whole plot was planted with potatoes. Three months later he came back to harvest his potatoes. Instead of finding lots of potatoes and no weeds he found just the opposite. He gave up. Just this year a new plot holder took over a plot that had been completely cleared by the previous plot holder. She said that she completely understood the importance of preventing weeds from seeding. The weeds are now on their second generation with lots of seed heads dropping their seeds. I'm waiting to see if she will give up.

Some plot holders gather up all the weeds, seeds and all, and make a compost heap. It's too small to heat up and kill the seeds. A year later they have some lovely looking compost. It gets spread over the ground. "Bloody hell, where did all these come from!". They came from your plot, you grew them.

I think that sometimes the many gardening programmes give the wrong impression about growing crops. They make it look too easy. There's a belief that burying the weeds by digging gets rid of them. Sadly, that's not the case. Seeds have been collected from 3,000 year old Egyptian tombs and they have germinated and grown. Chickweed seeds can remain viable in the soil for forty years. I wish that crop seeds did the same.

With a dedication to stop weeds from seeding, a plot will steadily become more weed free as all the seeds will have been brought to the surface, germinated and been removed. One year's lapse and it's back to square one. A recent survey in Edinburgh showed that keen plot holders spend about sixteen hours a week on their plot in the summer and half of that in winter.

The problem for other plot holders is that an overgrown plot releases thousands of seeds. The airborne ones (dandelions, willow herb, thistles etc.) float off in the wind. Some summer days the air is thick with just these seeds. The most common weed on my plot is willow herb (bomb weed) and I haven't let one of them seed since I took over. They have all come in on the wind.

Next month I'll continue hoeing and hand weeding. Many weeds can grow, flower and seeds after some plot holders have left for the winter. Then they come back about Easter, "Bloody hell, where did these come from!". They came from your plot, you grew them.

B. A. Plotter.