Allotment keeping weeds down

savemoney

Cardboard is a good method of keeping weeds down and does add brown waste to the soil encourages worms up whilst gives them some protection, obviously have to renewal it now and then. Some people in past have used old carpet on allotments and that must never be used, well at least nylon carpet as you will continue to get nylon threads for years to come once it starts to break down


I use lots of cardboard broken into pieces and paper in compost it adds brown waste and the worms love it

JourneyH

Fair enough, they sound lovely!. I pruned my currents and forgot to tidy away some of the cuttings which have all struck so am very pleased. I am going to try to add some straw/strulch as the beds may get a bit compacted otherwise. Good luck with the white currants!

Thomas_Holding

savemoney wrote: »

Cardboard is a good method of keeping weeds down and does add brown waste to the soil encourages worms up whilst gives them some protection, obviously have to renewal it now and then. Some people in past have used old carpet on allotments and that must never be used, well at least nylon carpet as you will continue to get nylon threads for years to come once it starts to break down


I use lots of cardboard broken into pieces and paper in compost it adds brown waste and the worms love it

Interesting. So you just put the cardboard down on the ground and it keeps the weeds down. Does it not look a bit awful? Not that I mind but I am worried about the neighbours..

Arthog

Another vote for cardboard. My plot is not overlooked at all, and I put magazines (shiny covers removed) down between the beds then brown cardboard with all sellotape removed, on top. You have to stick to the rules of the Allotments but the cardboard looks quite nice. On the growing areas I use just the cardboard.
Polythene weighted down with blocks or trays of stones works well. It has to be punctured to allow the rain through.


I'll make any effort to suppress unwanted weeds after returning from holiday once to find that the little weeds on the strawberry patch were taller than I was.

Thomas_Holding

Arthog wrote: »

Another vote for cardboard. My plot is not overlooked at all, and I put magazines (shiny covers removed) down between the beds then brown cardboard with all sellotape removed, on top. You have to stick to the rules of the Allotments but the cardboard looks quite nice. On the growing areas I use just the cardboard.
Polythene weighted down with blocks or trays of stones works well. It has to be punctured to allow the rain through.


I'll make any effort to suppress unwanted weeds after returning from holiday once to find that the little weeds on the strawberry patch were taller than I was.

Thank you do you have any photos of what it looks like? Also what are you growing?

savemoney

I haven't tried it but seen others do it you need some weight on cardboard though. I mainly use membrane and leaf mould

Thomas_Holding wrote: »

Interesting. So you just put the cardboard down on the ground and it keeps the weeds down. Does it not look a bit awful? Not that I mind but I am worried about the neighbours..

Arthog

I have several raised beds, growing carrots, potatoes, leeks, onions, tomatoes, courgettes and beetroot, also climbing French beans in old buckets.
I don't have photos, sorry. The cardboard idea was in Kitchen Garden magazine a few years ago.