Hi Charles
I am a new vegetable gardener, and am looking forward to attending your 1 day course in March. I have six new raised beds that have been created and are about to be filled in the next week or so. Therefore I had a question in advance of the course. I’d like to follow your no dig gardening guidelines, and have lots of compost ready. However, if we use our existing soil to fill the beds, I suspect it will contain a lot of grass and perennial weed seeds, so I thought I might put down some cardboard or layers of newspapers to provide additional protection against weeds(in addition to the 6 inches of mulching material).Is this a good idea if I’m hoping to plant vegetables this year? Should the cardboard/paper be directly above the soil/below the compost or should I put some soil on top of the cardboard as well?
Creating new raised Beds – cardboard how deep?
Charles answered Charles replied 2 times in this thread. Jump to his answer ↓
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Hi Catherine,
Charles explains this under the “No Dig Growing” link at the top of this page.
You put the cardboard on top of the existing soil and put a 4″ layer of well rotted manure/compost on top of the cardboard. You can put a 6″ layer of compost if you want to but with the cardboard layer that depth really is not necessary.Don.
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Thanks Don and I wonder Catherine if you need the cardboard layer, it may increase slugs.
It sounds like you are worried about new weeds from seed, not perennials from roots. So an inch or two of weed-free compost over the surface is worth considering (maybe buy in sacks), and a surface of any compost is easier to rake and hoe (weed seedlings) than is soil, which is more sticky. -
Thanks Don & Charles!
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and Catherine, I look forward to discussing with you and hearing more in March