new allotment and weeds

[jonesy]

hi charles
i have a new allotment which has the normal weeds and grass growing on it.does the following plan seem ok to get rid of the weeds or to excessive.to start with i am taking of the top layer only to even out the site as it is uneven in places,then i am putting a few inches of horse manure down followed by a covering of mypex.would it be a good idea to put cardboard down on top of the manure followed by the mypex or is the cardboard unnecessary.i plan to leave this on for a year or so.i am not planning on growing anything during this time as i just want to totally kill off all weeds before planting in the future.

thanks glen

[charles]

 Hello Glen,

Yes this is the trickiest part and your idea to be clear of weeds is spot on, just a few details I would add.

• you are foregoing growing time to be clear of weeds, but if the weeds are only annual grasses and other annuals such as chickweed, sow thistle, fathen then your soil will be clean by late autumn and with the manure on top you could even, for example, plant garlic in November
• if there is couch grass, bindweed etc then you will save a lot of weeding time and effort by keeping the mypex on, but without cardboard as the combination of mypex and manure give good light exclusion
• if you have only annual grass and annual weeds, three or four inches of manure without mypex would be enough to smother them and create a clean surface – I mention this mainly for the benefit of other readers in case they think that mypex is always necessary. I have never used it but see its value for perennial weeds. Black polythene is cheaper but does not admit moisture.

If you have perennial weeds, I would have a look under the mypex both in October and then next spring to see how they are fading and once you see little or no white shoots, you can start planting. Every situation is different so one cannot give a definite timing for clean soil.

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