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I got some weedkiller in the spring and used it on the driveway. It's called 'Glifogolds Grimpo' ( yes I know it sounds really bizarre) Unfortunately I don't know if it was any good or not as when we got back this time around the driveway was still full of weeds but I bought it in Euro Agri in Ostuni which is a little sort of agricultural supply type place so it's probably OK.

Weeding seems to be a big pastime for us whenever we're out there and it's a real pain in the butt so I'm looking at the possibility of getting a rotivator in spring but I would prefer to go down this road pulling the weeds and rotivating rather than going over the top on the weedkiller use. All that chemical stuff in the ground can't be a good thing I reckon even if it does seem to make life easier in the short term, and if you look at everyone else's patch they've all got the same problem.

As long as you can catch the weeds before the seed heads form you've got a chance of clearing them but if the seed heads are formed pulling them up will do no good as the seeds will just disperse................I think rotivation is probably the only answer.

hi Kenny,
thanks for the that. we went to see some friends last night and they have twice as much land as us and we all agreed the best bet is to buy a rotivator.
Our neighbours up the road have a huge plot and have had a guy in doing theirs and it looks fantastic now. Having been told that generally it only needs doing a couple of times a year , it seems that around here, it is much more often than that.
We would rather not use weedkillers as well....so on Monday off to find Rodney the Rotivator !!!!! :cool:
Next time you come , hopefully we will have another bit of garden finished !!!!!

[QUOTE=alex and lyn]hi Kenny,
thanks for the that. we went to see some friends last night and they have twice as much land as us and we all agreed the best bet is to buy a rotivator.
Our neighbours up the road have a huge plot and have had a guy in doing theirs and it looks fantastic now. Having been told that generally it only needs doing a couple of times a year , it seems that around here, it is much more often than that.
We would rather not use weedkillers as well....so on Monday off to find Rodney the Rotivator !!!!! :cool:
Next time you come , hopefully we will have another bit of garden finished !!!!![/QUOTE]
The weeds will love you for using the rotivator, all those lovely little bits of weed root being spread around the patch, all of which will grow from both cut ends... make sure you thoroughly weed before rotivating. If you live away, I'm afraid that a weed free garden will be difficult LOL, I have a better named weedkiller, BUGGY 360SG which my guy assures me kills everything green and lasts for 3 months, so that might work for drives etc., but not for garden use, I am dreading starting as I think the only way will be "see a weed, pull it up" OOooh me back, RADOX anyone...

Weeds flourish on newly turned soil. If you want to eliminate them over time the best thing to do is to dig over your ground as little as possible.

In the short term, before you start planting, a broad leaf weedkiller will eliminate most weeds and leave the grass standing (if you want it).

[QUOTE=Sano]Weeds flourish on newly turned soil. If you want to eliminate them over time the best thing to do is to dig over your ground as little as possible.

In the short term, before you start planting, a broad leaf weedkiller will eliminate most weeds and leave the grass standing (if you want it).[/QUOTE]

It has been difficult trying to source the different weedkillers here, although, being honest, I have not been to any larger garden centres yet, the only stuff available in the country is the good old kill em all weedkillers, although I have noticed several gardens springing up, perhaps as interest grows so will choice. :)

You know, now that you mention it, I have never actually gone looking for broadleaf weedkiller here either, so would not know if it is commonly available in Europe at all.

Great stuff to get dandelions and the like out of your lawn though. Also about the only thing that will kill ivy.

Another way, for smaller bits of ground, to kill off weeds is to lay down some old carpeting and smother them off the ground.

We find it easy to source RoundUp the gylphosate based weedkiller which translocates into the roots leaving the soil alone. Pathclear the 6 month one for drives and roads is also readily available. If local agricultural chemical suppliers don't have it try somewhere like a large supermarket or Castorama. But there is no answer but to be there all the time unfortunately.

[QUOTE=Cassini]We find it easy to source RoundUp the gylphosate based weedkiller which translocates into the roots leaving the soil alone. Pathclear the 6 month one for drives and roads is also readily available. If local agricultural chemical suppliers don't have it try somewhere like a large supermarket or Castorama. But there is no answer but to be there all the time unfortunately.[/QUOTE]

i love roundup, have looked for it several times, keep asking my son to bring some over, but he keeps muttering about bags of white powder, customs officers and rubber gloves :eek:
will keep looking though, thanks

We also have this problem in ours. We bought a roll of thick plastic to cover the ground and then put fresh dirt on top of the plastic as we did not want to use chemicals either.

cassini is right .... the glysophate based killers are the bet....you go into your agri store and just ask by the chemical name and they will hand you over in general a litre plastic bottle of very powerful undiluted chemical...of which in general you will use about 20 ml per 20 lt can but read instructions....

there are sveral good things about it...its almost safe enough to drink ...as my chemical supplier in england was wont to comment and in goes inactive when it touches the earth...it only activates on green gowing things...is safe to spray right up to or even on tree trunks...and in general even if you touch the leaves of a well established shrub will not kill it....

there are only two times in the year it is really effective... in spring once the weeds are big enough and growing fast .... and in autumn while they are either still growing well or receding.... it takes the chemical to the roots .... othertimes are much less effective and if you have to its best after a rain...it does not kill stinging nettles

the other option is to cover the ground with something to keep the light out and leave for a year....

there is a conservative saying... one years weeds seven years seeds... wishful thinking ....

rotovating as george has said is no solution... it chops up all the perrenial weeds and each part of these will form a new plant ...and it is specifically the perrenial weeds you have to get rid of before planting a new garden as they are the ones that will remain and get tangled up with your new plants and eventually swamp them.....

you have to spray first with he glysophate.... leave at least a day... without rain.... you can add a tablespoon of washing up liquid into the spray can ...it acts as a fixative and allows the chemical to spread over the leaves better... you dont have to get all the weed either nor stand for a long time ...leave a week this time of year... it doesnt matter if the weeds having turned color ...but is sometimes better if you are just starting to let them do so...that way you will know you did it right and that you didnt miss any spots....

now the really hard bit... a rotovator is useless... the ones here even more so because in general they use the cheaper types which the engine sits over the tines... you see them struggling along with these things and swinging them from side to side.... alex and lyn you seem to have a fair bit of ground... if you can i would go for the option of one that has driven wheels and the rotovating section behind ... these types in general also allow you to use different implements... ie rough grass cutters and sometimes ploughs...

so why is this hard...well the rotovators pan the ground out at about 6 inches...even heavy duty tractor driven ones dont go much more then eight to nine inches... so in reallity there are two options.... do not bother spraying and get a local farmer in to ridge plow your land.... try to get him not to turn at the ends just reverse and plough each time.... that way you only have one compacted headland to deal with.... its that or double digging... and thats much too hard....

leave it exposed like that this winter and in spring spray it with weed killer and then rotovate... rotovating this time of year anyway is not much of an option now if your land is at all sticky anyway.... that way you will have a good start for planting.....only plant bigger specimen plants and then spray again at the end of the summer when weeds are growing again ....

in all honesty glysophate is a broad leaf weedkiller and i would not put any broad leaf killer on any lawn i liked... it will kill it as grass is a perrenial broad leaf plant ... ( sano ... are you attempting to make ireland the only green and pleasant land) i think you are talking selective weedkiller... a very different thing and one of the chemicals i would say not to use... i know everyone in england loves it for those nice green front lawns but it is a hormone based weed killer ...which is how it kills weeds and not grass...you can get weedkillers that kill everything and not the crop you are growing if you are a farmer or registered to use chemicals ...in fact to buy some of the chemicals in england you can get here at the farm shop you do have to be

anyway if i know anything i do know about gardens ... building/planting ..and agricutural chemicals... ..... and preperation is what you need to do....the rotovator is good for planting vegetables in freshly turned and nicely level soil...which is why your neighbours have them i would think... deep hand digging or ploughing is what you have to do first

the best thing for your vegetables.... and again ...have the plough in first is to plant a big potatoe crop next year...it does the ground a world of good and kills a lot of weeds... your neighbours much as mine will have told you how to do things...but will only know how to prepare vegetable gardens...so take that advice....but do the plant/flower garden your own way....

Am printing off your advise as we speak !!! Thanks very much.....will let you know how we get on. :)
...and special thanks to John .....it is great to have some really experienced people on the Forum for us novices...
..what about my vines .??...any advise there please ? ...tried the search George suggested but taking ages to find a simple to read instruction on exactly when and what to do.

There's something I don't understand here.....if rotavators don't do the job then why does everybody use them? I'm not trying to be funny but it seems to be such a big thing that the locals do every year, so if it's a completely pointless exercise why do they do it??

I also wondered what effect stones (fist sized and larger) would have on a rotavator. Could it deal with them or would they all have to be cleared first for fear of damaging the tines?

Prices here in the UK range from £400 for a little garden rotavator to several thousand for one which will give you 25 inch width of ploughed soil. I imagine this work would be pretty strenuous over a 2 acre garden!

Also, what effect would vine roots have on rotavator blades?

As a final thought, we would like our garden to be smooth and flat like a lot of these nice olive groves you see but rotavating wouldn't achieve this. When we bought the house last year the garden had quite a ploughed look as if it had recently been rotavated, but was still full of weeds. The furrows have now compacted somewhat and it's a bit easier to walk on when it's dry and it also looks a lot smoother - even more full of pesky weeds though. would we need to drag a roller over it after rotavating to maintain this smooth and walkable on effect?

Maybe the only answer is to just keep pulling the weeds and hope for the best.......I don't know.

Have to agree with kenny...without exception all our neighbours are currently rotivating their olive groves ....and some are huge ( the Olive groves not the neighbours !!! :D ) :confused:

Back in the summer, when we had no weeds , we were shown how to
' clean ' under the olive trees in readiness for the harvest. You sweep right round the base of the tree , right out to the farthest branches and then water. You do this for 3-4 days and then achieve that really flat , clean look.Hard work but a good old-fashioned twig broom worked brilliantly......trouble is ...when the rains came...we still got the weeds.....so think we will have to resort to the weedkiller first and try again next year.

I've got a twig broom !! I'll try using it next time as I always wondered about those nice circles under the olive trees. Still can't make up my mind about the rotavator though.........need more input from those with some experience of it.

regarding rotavators and levelling land.... i think your neighbours...am not sure may well be using flail mowers in the olive groves... these are machines....tractor drawn that look like rotovators but just munch up grass and brambles and such into a mulch.... i would say here i have never seen an olive grove rotovated.... but things can be different elsewhere.....

but commonsense would dictate that rotavating between trees will damage the root structure ...will lead to suckering...where the roots are cut and less ability for the plant to produce olives as it will have less root...

in general if you have a strimmer it is sufficient to strim round the trees... about now if it is dry.... you have to laty nets anyway to catch all the olives ...so even if you dont it doesnt matter much...

why do all italian rural inhabitants have rotovators...well they all have vegetable gardens... and once deep ploughed in the autumn...in the spring they are levelled offf with these machines which then also provide with a fine tilth a planting bed....

if your land has been ploughed when it is dry... and generally before planting... you use a tined implement( sometimes powered) or rotovator if a small area to level it off... if you are planting seed you then roll it and then use a finer tined implement for the seed bed....

in general you plough to turn the land over...bury weed and expose the root...which if cold weather does come will kill the plant hopefully... it also allows air in and breaks down the earth gradually by weathering... it allows worms and such to do their work .... rotovating by itself say will never allow a deep enough tilth to plant potatoes in... and eventually will cause the soil to become stale as none of the sub soil is reached and the blades of the rotovator will create a pan on this subsoil which will eventually become like concrete....

the type of rotovator...if you buy the one with no wheels it is hard work to use...also it does not give much of a finish comapred to the more expensive wheel driven ones...because the rotovator moves at the speed of either the tines or the wheels.... ie with no wheels you have to keep holding it back to allow it to rotovate...and then move it from side to side to let it grab more soil and then hold it again... with wheels you set the land speed by the gering of the wheels and the tines work at a constant speed....allowing the tilth much more easily... also most of these types allow you to offeset the handles so you dont walk on the freshly rotovated soil... so its a question of cost ...

if you have enough land to warrant it a small tractor with implements is best .... and there are several makes here.... if your land is hilly tracked vehicles are best...they dont turnover so easily....but then you cannot take them on the road....

as regards stones... they should all have shear pins or if belt driven the belt will slip which allows stones to get jammed in but not to damage the machine....with vine roots.... you should not be rotovating deep enough to touch them anyway but they will eventually tangle in the tines and you will have to remove them ..... with all the machines it is very advisable to not only turn them off but to remove the spark plug connection before handling any moving part..... .. seen hands and fingers dissapear that way... dont ruin your retirement here

[QUOTE=Cassini]We find it easy to source RoundUp the gylphosate based weedkiller which translocates into the roots leaving the soil alone. Pathclear the 6 month one for drives and roads is also readily available. If local agricultural chemical suppliers don't have it try somewhere like a large supermarket or Castorama. But there is no answer but to be there all the time unfortunately.[/QUOTE]

I've been looking to buy RoundUp in Italy and was told they never heard of it. Is it called RoundUp or is it known by another name..

Frank

John, they use flail mowers up here too in the Olives.

A&L, I put up direct links to pruning documents as well as the search criteria.

Donato, our 81 year old'fountain of all olive knowledge !!!'..mainly 'cos he has the biggest grove round here !....is using ( well his son is ) a petrol (or some fuel) driven machine which has 6 large turny blades and it has huge handles which the son guides it along with.....it is turning the earth and leaving lovely furrows....is it a horseless plough or a rotivator ????
Donato lapses in to local dialect when he gets excited and I have trouble understanding all he says ( he is wonderful though ). He gets excited 'cos he is fascinated we are 'having a go '!!! .
I think he said the machine is 35 years old ..but he may have been telling me his sons age ! :rolleyes:
Found the weedkiller thanks.....Alex having a bash as we speak...have been recommended a shop in next town to look at machinery. ( told you San Vito was quiet !!!!.....and long may it stay that way !!) :) Going to have a look tomorrow...probably come back with a shire horse and 90 foot plough !!! :D