mulching – cardboard and manure

[debid]

Hi Charles,
I read your article in this months Gardeners’ World magazine and was inspired! I rented my first allotment last winter – covered in couch grass. After a season of hard work digging to eradicate the stuff i am now ready to embark on the no dig approach. Despite my best efforts my plot still suffers from couch.

I have a good source of cow manure and loads of cardboard sheets. My question is:
when constructing my new beds, do I lay the cardboard first and the manure on top of this, or do I put down manure (am planning a 6″ depth, and the cardboard weighted down on top? I have searched previous posts and can’t find a definitive answer,
many thanks
debi

[charles]

 I am glad you liked the article and welcome to the site. 

Have a look under’No dig vegetables’ for pics of cardboard on top, which I find most effective as otherwise, when buried under compost, it rots more quickly and weed roots and shoots can then grow up through it.

OR you may find that 6 inches of compost/manure is enough, without cardboard on top, to weaken the couch to a point where its new growth is so weak that regular trowelling of regrowth in the first year after mulching can eliminate it.

What about paths and couch spreading in from them? Maybe mypex? or cardboard for them.

[debid]

Thanks Charles. On paths, yes, I intend to use mypex on some paths and cardboard/newspaper and a small amount of compost on others; all depends on the budget!

[Author]

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