New Field New Site

[henryallison]

Hi Charles

My girlfriend and I are taking on a 7 acre field which are dividing into two 3.5 acre fields so the tenant farmer an continue to run cattle/sheep. The farmer has just harvested the oats and peas and now the field is bare with the oat stubble and a few weeds popping up.

We want to grow on no dig raised beds between 1/4 acre to 1/2 acre, put up a tunnel and sow a grass/clover mix around the area we plan to grow on. The farmer has lots of spare cow manure that we plan to use but we need to organise a trailer etc to deliver it.

Would it be worth getting polythene and putting it down now to cover the area that we want to use to stop the spread of weeds and protect the soil and then pull it back to form the beds when we get the beds or wait til we have the manure and form the beds? But there is alot of work to be done to work out how many beds we need to grow etc.

What is the best kind of polythene to use and where to buy it from seeing as it will be a large area.

Thanks!

[henryallison]

also, as the field has few weeds and hardly any grass post oat and pea harvest, would we need to put 6 inches of manure/compost down? could we get away with putting less down?

would using rotten cow manure be okay??

[charles]

Yes to all Q’s in 2nd post, 2in is enough.
Pull any big weeds first if not using poly, but it may be worthwhile.
Google for poly or get some free from local farmers perhaps.

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