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Monty Don explains the benefits of hand weeding, demonstrating how to keep unwanted weeds at bay.all year round, particularly springMore advice on dealing with weedsHow to hoe effectivelyMaintaining a healthy lawnDealing with brambles

Any unwanted plant, or a plant that hinders the growth of more desirable plants.

into life - including the weeds. My last couple of sessions on the plot have involved a never-ending cycle of weeding and sowing seeds. It's so important to keep on top of weeding at this time of year. If left, they can smother young plants, competing

exhausting tasks: for example, digging a long line of fence post holes, pointing between paving stones or even weeding. This was fine most of the time - bar occasional rebellions when a members of my workforce downed tools and refused to listen to The Archers

. Garden twine where, if you open the cellophane package the wrong way then the loose end becomes strangely elusive. All of these things are certain to put me in a very bad mood.Not so tangles of weeds; I rather enjoy the gradual teasing and tickling

It's been difficult to choose my 2009 weed of the year. Butercups and daisies continue to compete with grass in my lawn, as do those lovely rosettes of plantain. Then there are the dandelions. Oh dear, this isn't making my lawn sound very good is it

place after dandelions and horsetail), and bindweed came 2nd to dandelions in northern England. Full results of our survey of weeds and other garden problems can be found in the August 2009 issue of Gardeners' World Magazine.

magnet for bumblebees.There are a few green manures to sow now, suitable for a range of soil types:1. Grazing rye (Secale cereale) improves soil structure. Sow from August to November and dig in the following spring.2. Winter field bean (Vicia faba

I'm rather proud of the plot at the moment. It's weeded, fed, mulched and manured, the potatoes are chitted and in, and the beds are ready. Best of all, I've just top dressed my paths with lovely wood chips, which set the whole thing off to a 'T

I'm not one for manicured lawns. I think lawn weeds are pretty. I'd really like clumps of bird's foot trefoil, dandelions, daisies, creeping buttercup and self-heal growing among the grass in my garden. In fact, I've just planted some clover