I loathe weeding !

I guess old grass matting would rot down faster than a nylon carpet. It's amazing what you can find in the town dump... Anyone tried this?

Rhododendron ponticum - now there is a really brutal weed. And a trick one to spell... Beautiful flowers, but has a nasty tendency to take over UK habitats. Strange, isn't is how all the other R. species introduced don't seem to spread.

Its all on a hillside so difficult to deal with, we are going to try and terrace area's, Jess like the idea of a an aerial work of art.

We had to cut back a lot of rhododendrons and fuchsia when we moved here. I shredded the 'trimmings', some of which were quite large, and used the shreddings as mulch to reveal what had been flowerbeds twenty-four years ago. That mulch was actually more successful than old carpets, which we also used on the steep bits, probably because it fed the soil as well.

Wonderful vision of your two acres carpeted with mouldy old carpets that you have retrieved from skips... A work of modern art in the making.
What other mulching options have people tried ?

Great baggy as one of the patches is where we want the veggies, I will try that soup sounds tasty.

When you've carpeted a patch, glass, try growing potatoes on it. My gran said nettles prepared the ground very well.

In spring, when the leaves are young, you can eat steamed nettles like cabbage or spinach. They add something to mushroom soup. One of my fave combinations is mushrooms, butter beans and nettles. Whizzed in a blender when all is cooked, no-one need know if you think they'd mind.

Thanks notso the only problem is that its most of the area around the house 2 acres, I suppose I could do a patch at a time.

Do you have any old carpet glass, or could you scrounge some? Carpet over nettles or other weeds does a brilliant job of smothering or killing them. It doesn't look very glamorous and you'd need to leave it in place for a few months, but as you're not living there yet, that should be ok?

We have hundreds of nettles at the house we are renovating so not living there yet and the house has not been lived in since 60's so they have been left to there own devices. I love it in the spring before they appear, but I am not sure how to deal with them any ideas?

Oldgreymare, care to visit Cheshire? You would love the amount of work I could give you to do...

We pull up bracken and Himalayan Balsam, we spray Japanese Knotweed with Round-up (it's working, slowly — couple more years should do it), and I scythe down the Common Cat's Ear, Dock, soft rushes and thistles when they get excessive. Everything else is just left to get on with it.

When I weed it is more like harvesting, because I feed them to the chickens. Not all weeds - they can't have dock or any member of the deadly nightshade family, but that leaves quite a lot. They particularly love dandelions and English plantain.

As this is Australia and I didn't grow up here, I don't know the names of most of the weeds, but the chickens enjoy two kinds of prickle weeds, one is Bindii, the other has clover leaves and a yellow flower that becomes a prickle. I call it ganglion prickle weed, because the stems radiate from the centre, making it easy to pull a lot out at once. They love purslane, so of course, I don't get much of that any more. I had loads of it when i thought of it as a weed. Typical!

I love weeding! Spent 2 hours at the allotment this afternoon, doing just that ( second time this week!). Shameful to let it get in such a state.... spent 2 weeks looking after Grandchildren, and when we got back the weeds were 'as high as an elephant's eye.' Note to self: Summertime excursions must be of the short variety.

Lucid, that is a brilliant tip, I have been battling bind weed for years, I am winning, but the odd piece still pops up.

All you need to do is dead head.

To get rid of the bindweed....push a cane in by the bindweed, allow it to grow up the cane then spray it with weedkiller.

Don't you think its the time of the summer to wind down a bit. And let them just grow?

Just sit and look at the flowers.

Pull 'em all out in the autumn.

Hi there. Sounds like you have a brutal gang of weeds. We need some suggestions...
A ground cover plan? You could have some of my dog violets that form a mat maybe. I have a little spurge but think it pretty (miniature euphorbia ) so tend to leave it. I was admiring a bank of it in the west country last weekend.
Could you perhaps trade time with someone who likes weeding and do something for them?