Monty Don explains benefits of hand weeding
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Monty Don, who is a well-known gardening expert, regularly shares tips and tricks online as well as on television. In one 2019 video, the gardener shared how to remove weeds from the garden as well as explaining the benefits of doing so.
Weeds can be incredibly annoying and if ignored, can spread or cause bigger problems.
Most of the worst garden weeds start growing in the spring time, although they can be a problem all year round.
Gardeners should make sure they eradicate the problem before weeds spread and become out of hand.
There are many methods to remove weeds, including pulling them up by hand.
Monty said: “The important thing to realise is a weed is simply a plant in the wrong place.
“So things you might be quite happy with elsewhere are no good if they’re not working.
“You need an implement of some sort.
“I use a sickle but quite honestly anything will do.”
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Bending down on his knees to pull out the weeds, Monty added: “What matters is getting there. Also, it’s a very good way of getting to known your soil, getting to know your plants, it’s a very intimate process.”
Using a sickle to remove the weed, the expert put the end of the tool into the ground to dig underneath the weed.
Once loosened, Monty then pulled the tool upwards to loosen to the root.
After pulling the weed out, it is important to make sure the root has been completely lifted up.
If it hasn’t, it will be able to grow back again and again.
Monty added: “It’s very important to do it now so they don’t seed and they don’t take over.
“The other thing about weeding is to do it a little bit at a time.
“Do one metre properly, and that’s far better than doing 10 metres half-heartedly.”
Weeds can also appear on lawns, and in winter, can be damaging to the grass.
Monty Don also recently shared how to deter slugs and snails from your garden, including using a beer trap.
In a different video for Gardeners’ World, he said: “Nothing will do more to cope with slugs and snails than a really healthy ecosystem in your garden.
“So if you can make a pond, that does a huge amount of good.
“It attracts frogs and toads.”
He added that he uses the occasional beer trap to catch slugs and nails.
A good way to make a beer trap is to put a little beer in a jar and place it in the soil.
Slugs like the smell so much that they will crawl into the jar and drown in the beer.
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