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This is probably a silly question and i think i already know the aswer BUT is there anyway of getting rid of creeping buttercup and ground elder that doesn't envolve years of back breaking deep digging or the use of nasty chemicals ??? all advice greatfully recieved :)

I'm a noobie gardner so I can't help too much, but I know that you can cook up the ground elder like spinach and eat it, so if you have to bite the bullet and start digging, at least you can get a free meal out of it!

Tom

Depends if you need to use the area striaght away, you could cover it over with mypex to exclude light. Or you could cover it with cardboard then put compost over the cardboard and grow on that. The cardboard mulches down onto you plot and keeps weeds down. The roots can go through the cardboard so don't worry about that either.

What Andy said, provided you can get hold of enough mulch material. It doesn't all have to be compost.

Water the area if it's at all dry, then cover with cardboard or thick layers of newspaper making sure overlaps are at least 10cm. Water until the cardboard is soaked, then mulch the whole thing over with 10cm of whatever organic stuff you can get hold of. This is called "sheet mulching", but beware badgers if they visit your plot.

If you've mulched with stuff other than compost or topsoil, then to plant into it you'll need to pull a bit of the mulch aside and replace it with a little pocket of compost and plant into that. A single screwdriver or dibber hole through the cardboard will make sure the roots have no trouble, but generally they'll go straight through it anyway.

yeah the above is good do you have a mushroom farm nr bye get a load of mushroom compost to bulk up with the other stuff
regards dave