Starting a new polytunnel garden on bindweed infested ground?

Community Community Garden Problems Weeds Starting a new polytunnel garden on bindweed infested ground?

This topic contains 1 reply, has 2 voices, and was last updated by  charles 5 years, 11 months ago.

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  • #46201

    linda fabbri
    Participant

    Hi charles and everyone else on this forum!
    Me and my partner are erecting two large polytunnels on my friend’s land. The soil is very fertile as it had cows living in the barns next to it for years and it has had a good few years to settle since then. It’s a great sunny spot, close to the sea and level with it, but with a decent amount of shelter. It has been covered in man high weeds for the last three years, and the soil is thick with bindweed roots. I know this is going to be a challenge but I would really like to be able to harvest some good organic veg from it this year to make it worth it’s while.
    We have access to as much horse manure as we want and we would like to garden no-dig. I have had a good read on this forum on the threads regarding bindweed and other types of weeds and I understand that complete darkness for at least a year is the way to deal with bindweed, as well as pulling out any emerging shoots, am I right?

    So this is what I am thinking, just like to run it by you guys ,see if you think this might be a good idea?

    Starting with putting down card, manure, grass clippings, etc all over the polytunnel and cover the whole area with black polyethene. Then cutting holes in the black plastic large enough to insert a plastic plant pot with the bottom cut off, upside down to plant into (tomatoes, cucumber etc). That way I can still hopefully grow on and in the space this year while dealing with the bindweed problem and will hopefully have a nice layer of soil under the plastic once it is lifted for next year’s growing season.

    or

    Could I have simple raised beds or pots on top of the black plastic for this first year, if I had drainage holes in it, or would that just water the bind weeds and keep them alive? Or would the light exclusion do them in anyway?

    Any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated, I am not at very keen on all this use of plastic but the bindweed on this land is all over the place and I want to deal with it. I would like to just mulch thickly and start growing straight into the ground this year but I am worried that I will just have a poly tunnel full of bindweed, especially if I go away in the summer for a week or two and can’t be on the case to weed it out.

    What do you guys reckon?

    Linda

    Linda

    #46207

    charles
    Moderator

    Hi Linda, good plan.
    I would plant (without plastic pots – normal planting) through slits in the polythene.
    Yes patrol the holes and bindweed will be weaker, just catch up after holiday.

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