Hugo Morvan

Christopher forgive me if we speak about the same thing. My neighbor connected all his 200 liter barrels by filled up and installed hoses.  He siad he filled them hoses up and held the ends and put them under water before letting go. If there are no bubbles in the way you have literally made it one barrel.

That if i let some plants go to seed i have enough to start over and share my passion with others. I learned to seed closer than recommended so the canopy closes and weeds have less chances. Just eat the small ones and let the biggest set seed.
Learning to closely monitor plants instead of overwatering.
I've battled a clover that spread like mad in the spring. Now i decided it represses grasses and explodes in time so i can easily cut it right in time to seed bush beans or sprawling tomatoes while fertilizing the soil.

Interesting observation. I just exchanged work between friends. Better to work a week with 3 at one place and then to do similar at the others then going at it alone. It's got to be well prepared but so far we've got an outhouse rendered and a roof finished. Have to think what i want to do at mine's but it might up being gardening work in autumn. Anyway it takes a lot, because you've got to sleep at other people's place who have different habits and stay focused at the same time. But the alternative is plotting alone.

Very good point Timothy, the rootsystem of some grasses is amazing. I wonder as we're all struggling with runner grasses.. I'm like taking it out on the natives which are fairly well behaved. Creating in fact space for runner grasses to invade, install themselves around perennials, very difficult and time consuming to eradicate and from there they monopolize. Probably i should get to know grasses better before acting. Some grasses have deep roots and seem to return year after year and make like mounds ants love to live in creating clumps that i dig up. Maybe i should have a line of those as a defense and after that a line of comfrey and then beds.It would provide lots of mulching material i could scythe.
I thought of another good thing about grasses, their shape provides a good shape for earthworms to drag into their underground tunnels like a snack to keep things ticking over until autumn provides all the foliage.

I'm pondering and muttering thoughts out loud, spewing nonsensical factoids if you like, here before heading out on an early morning in an early heatwave. I wonder how they get to that 20%... Is that after one infestation of the 5 big species on the move or is that after all 5 have moved in.. But as it's all we've got what would that do i wonder? It will take mulch longer to break down. It will still happen... But slower. Do they eat smaller ones? I think they might hunt smaller ones first. Will the earthworms learn to fight back? How about some earth worm Krav-Maga course this summer.. (joke) Don't the bigger worms eat a bigger percentage of the mulch? Then it makes not such a big dent.
I guess there is nothing we , a few thousand Permie minded folk can do against them. Compost and plants keep on getting imported. And once in, they have up to 3 generations a year, they're hermaphrodites and some can even split themselves. Aliens... The RHS said plant swaps are another cause of the spread.
They'll take their place in the ecosystems i guess whatever we do. Maybe we should look at it this way, preventive plant more pioneer species of trees to up the leaf litter bio mass in anticipation of them arriving. I'm doing an experiment with aspen trees this year. I found a little grove and have gone in in autumn and ripped out some root to propagate. It's sprouting beautifully and i'll incorporate it into edible food hedges/wind blocks i'm installing.

Definitely. It's the dreaded eater of earthworms. I don't know if this hideousness is capable of eradicating them, but it sure seems to make a dent in populations. They're on the march in France.

Yes i hate those runner grasses that grow through potatoes the most. I do pull seeds and do chop and drop. Most of my path ways are old hay, so no wonder grass is hard to battle, but we don't have wood chips or straw, so i just make due and if grass pops up, i dump more old hay on top. I guess i have to grow more cover crops and grains and trees shrubs and perennial herbs to at least stop it from becoming a problem. It's only a problem really  as i can't direct sow my annuals into grass. But thank you for the insightful answers.It helps and please don't hesitate to add more info if you happen to find this thread at a later stage.

I've been fighting grass for a long time now, but as the project is expanding i have to say i'm losing control. In some beds where i satrted without grasses it has crept back in and is quite dominating. As there is a heatwave i get up early to make use of the cool mornings and noticed how much dew grasses collect. Sometimes i pull it and mycelium seems fed by it..

In the past i have had a fight with yarrow. I removed it and later i observed that in my tree nursery trees that were surrounded by yarrow fared better. It made me realize my mistake and have been restoring the yarrow population after reading it's a healer plant.

I wonder if something similar goes for grasses? I am well aware that the word grass is misleading as there are so many species with differing qualities, but i would like to get a bit more nuanced about it and i'm curious what people have to say about it.

Because it's going well i'm doubling down, with bushbeans instead of peas and sunflowers. The weather has changed, we're experiencing a heat wave. Hopefully it will do just as well.

I wanted to grow it  like  a 'hedge' to shade the grass out which is invading. I find it hard to germinate, but had tons of seeds to play with and have discovered that dumping them in my multilayered sprouting device works very well. Probably as Jen said above the rinsing effect washes off those seed inhibitors.
Also they don't like to be transplanted and grow quite slow. So start them early in the year indoors and get them out of the pot carefully. I found they need help against grass getting taller or they get easily lost in it and then it's over for them.
Don't worry about ripping leaves off to make some space for neighboring plants they are strong and easily grow back.