mulching weedy soil

[charlesModerator]

mulching weedy soil

Postby charlesdowding » Sat Jul 25, 2009 11:37 am
Late summer is a good time to clean soil by covering it with any material that excludes light. Organic matter is best because it feeds soil life at the same time – what you use depends on what is available.
Sheets of black plastic are the quickest to apply but top growth is best strimmed or mown first, and any manure or compost then spread (before laying the plastic) will be of great value to crops the following year. Keep the sheet on until late winter, there may be some perennial roots to carefully dig out when it is removed.
If cardboard is used now, it will start to rot during autumn and a subsequent layer will be needed after about three months, depending how thick it was. Make sure all the edges overlap by a few inches, light exclusion must be total.
Last September I used some old organic hay bales that were full of dock seeds, on top of some old pasture containing many dandelions and buttercups as well as annual and couch grasses. In March the bales were removed (to be used in compost heaps), some of the couch roots were prised out and three inches of mushroom compost and cow manure were spread on top, before re-covering with paper mulch. Then on 8th June the paper mulch was removed, the ground was clean, leeks and brussels sprouts were planted. Subsequent weed growth has been almost minimal, requiring fortnightly removal of the odd stem of couch grass or of a very few annuals.
I am sure that soil prefers not to be disturbed and repays the favour by growing fewer weeds.

[MonicaMMember]

What is paper mulch? and if it has been on the ground for 2 or 3 months, surely it will be pretty well rotten and mucky, so how do you remove it? Indeed, why remove it at all? You make no mention of removing the cardboard (which goes pretty soggy in no time at all) and in dry weather surely it will curl up at the edges if it is on top, and therefore let light in no matter how much it is overlapped, as it has to have edges sooner or later. In your book there is a picture showing cardboard laid under compost. I’m confused – maybe it’s just information overload.
Monica

[charlesModerator]

 Hi Monica

Sorry to confuse you, in the piece here I am giving an example and should have mentioned that the paper was triple thickness and it was mostly dry for three months so it stopped regrowth of dandelions but was intact enough to roll up and reuse this year on a mulched potato bed. Evven now some of it is there i.e. it was strong paper, a commercial product of the eighties, unavailable now I think.

Re cardboard yes it needs weighting at edges and we use stones or posts as you can see in various photos, then put another layer of card on top if it has been moist and mild and edges are rotting. The photo shows a time when I tried cardboard under the cpmpost, now I suggest it is better on top so as to rot less quickly and have a longer mulching effect. 

So many things like this are experimental and I rty pointing readers in the directions which have been most fruitful here. Sharing your experience of the new allotment is great and I hope others will also say what has and has not worked for them.

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