New site with lots of creeping buttercup

[CatherineLMember]

Hi,

I’m preparing a small growing area (approx large allotment size) for a pub/restaurant and I’m stuck as to how to prepare the ground ready to get things growing asap. I’ve experience no-dig in commercial settings and have prepared no-dig beds in the past so am a convert! But I’m really don’t know what to do in this situation. The growing area is part of a grass field heavily infested with creeping buttercup. It’s very heavy clay and particularly badly compacted in places from cars and tractors.

At the end of last year I dutifully collected large pieces of cardboard and got a load of green waste compost delivered. I managed to get two beds mulched, set up and covered before the deluge of rain came and I wasn’t able to get onto the field for the rest of winter.

It’s now just about dried out enough to get going again but I’m now unsure if mulching will be enough to get things growing for the kitchens this year. The buttercup is already making it’s way into the two already made beds.

I’m now considering rotavating the area first and then mulching on top, and then doing no-dig thereafter. I know the buttercup might be worse from being rotavated but I read it is possible to kill it if it is buried below 15cm. I worry as well in the compacted areas that if we have a wet summer it’ll just turn into a paddy field again and that the compaction will only make the buttercup stronger. I’ve seen a grower prep new ground for no-dig by rotavating initially (admittingly after digging out the perennials), spreading manure and then greenwaste compost which seemed to work well.

Any advice on how I can set something up in the next couple of weeks on compacted, heavy clay, creeping buttercup infested land would be great!

Thanks

[charlesModerator]

 Hi Catherine,

I am a little puzzled by some details here but urge you to pursue your original course.
For example Homeacres was infested with creeping buttercup and ultimately I found it an easy weed to mulch, after some doubts this time last year as new leaves were ominously poking through the mulches. In pathways I re-covered them with more cardboard, in beds with 4-6in of compost on top it was trowel work to remove as much of the new white stems as possible, and they soon gave up, by the end of May, and they are definitely less enduring then dandelion and couch grass.
I cannot see that rotovating will help alleviate compaction, especially if it rains again, you will just have a pudding! also rotovating will not bury the weeds. And your clay is not too compacted or buttercups could not be so strong, I expect it is just dense and full of goodness.

Growing veg in beds where perennial weeds are dying underneath also helps to weaken and shade them.

[CatherineLMember]

That’s great. Thank you Charles. Think I just needed reassurance. The heap of green waste compost is covered but the buttercup is already coming up and as far as I understand creeping buttercup thrives in compacted, fertile, damp soil so I’ve been worrying it’ll come up through the beds too much for me to keep on top of. I’d be using a heavy duty rotavator/walking tractor which I know is even worse for the soil, and then go over it with a roller and put the green waste compost on top but I’ve not got huge amounts of growing experience so it’s great to know you’ve dealt with creeping buttercup without much hassle. There’s a polytunnel on the field (which is no-dig in it) and beyond controlling buttercup from coming up around the edges it hasn’t been much of a problem inside which should demonstrate to me that I needn’t rotavate.

Am I being too optimistic to get some beds established and ready to plant in the next few weeks? should I layer cardboard and then green waste compost on top, or just greenwaste compost and mulch with cardboard at the end of the season?

Thanks again

[charlesModerator]

 I found that mulching with 6in green waste or manure or whatever compost, with cardboard under the edges only, was enough to kill about 90% of the buttercup and then I could trowel the rest, while veg were growing eg lettuce, spinach, potato etc. See archived This Month, such as the original post of 1st March 2013 here (half-way down) for beds made in many different ways http://www.charlesdowding.co.uk/content/march-2013-updated-15th and they all worked, but if you can manage a six inch layer of compost that is best I reckon.

[ashleighParticipant]

i’m also creating new beds on top of a lawn of creeping buttercup. it’s good to read that it’s an indicator of fertile soil, albeit clayey, wet and compacted!

i am weeding every week and am shocked at how quickly it grows through 5-8″s of muck but i am just remembering that i have to persevere. it seems like the trick of no-dig is to weed your little heart out for the first few months and then you suddenly don’t have to anymore because you’ve won!

we don’t have buttercup on our old site but there we conquered the couch grass and sheeps sorrel now and only have to deal with blown-in seeds which is easy (as long as you never let them establish or seed)

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