"You will never get rid of that grass"

'You will never get rid of that grass'

These were the words of the dairy farmer who previously tenanted our field. At the time we didn't think much of it but his words have been ringing in our ears all season.

What he meant by 'You will never get rid of that grass' is '10 years ago, I resowed that field with couch grass, one of the most pernicious weeds in the UK'. Thank you very much.

We're still trying to work out an organic, effective and not-too-labour-intensive method of dealing with it. Ploughing and regular cultivating is one method but is quite hard on the soil. Ideally we want to leave the soil as undisturbed as possible to allow room for the soil life to breath and grow.

Our new plan is to put the pigs on a patch to turn it over, then leave it untouched overwinter. The pigs dig up and eat some of the roots then frosts will kill off the couch grass rhizomes (roots) which are lying close to the soil surface. We'll then do a thick mulch of organic matter in the spring to smother any remaining couch before planting into it.

That's the theory anyway - although I suspect our farmer friend is right - we won't ever get rid of the grass - but do we really need to? We don't need a field ridded of grass. We just need to create enough space for long enough to grow some beautiful seed and gorgeous flowers.