Scrapbook image

Your scrapbook

Forgotten your details?

Enter your email address and we'll send your username and password to you

London

  • Light RainToday
    9°C/16°C
  • Partly CloudyTomorrow
    6°C/14°C
  • See Gardeners'
    7-day forecast

Our Gardeners' 7-day forecast warns you of changing weather conditions (including frost, high wind and drought) and suggests actions to take to protect your plants.

Advertisement

Problem solving

Chickweed

Symptoms

Chickweed is a tenacious weed that can grow quickly and form thick mats, which smother nearby plants.

Find it on: all over the garden

Time to act: all year

Chickweed

Chickweed, Stellaria media, is best thought of as a delicious rather than a pernicious weed. Its young leaves are packed with vitamins, so it makes a healthy addition to salads. However, it can also harbour greenfly and spider mite, so remove it immediately if it appears in your greenhouse.

Solution

Organic

Hand weed or hoe out seedlings as they appear, or smother them with a good layer of compost or mulch. The most effective control is to remove the plants while they're seedlings.

Chemical

Use a total weedkiller, such as glyphosate. Avoid spraying on a windy day, or when the weed's near other desirable plants.

 

Subscribe to the magazine

May edition of Gardeners' World Magazine

In May...
The May issue is on sale from 29 April. Subscribe today and receive the next three issues of Gardeners' World magazine for just £1.

The UK's number 1 gardening magazine

Our show

BBC Gardener's World Live

Gardeners' World Live, 11-15 June 2008

See details

TV & Radio

Television icon

What's on this week

Find out what gardening programmes are on TV and radio this week. And read more about the Gardeners' World programme.

Offer

Planter

Buy a Felco pruning set for just £44.99

BBC Magazines

© BBC Magazines Ltd. BBC Worldwide Ltd.

The BBC Gardeners' World Magazine word mark and logo are trademarks of BBC Worldwide Ltd.

BBC Magazines is owned by the BBC and our profits are returned to the BBC for the benefit of the licence-fee payer.