Bare soil overwinter

[vikkib]

Personally I don't have a problem with black plastic (really hate the use of carpet though after trying to dig a load of it up when I first got my plot), it can be very useful.

I completely agree! I battled, for the best part of my first season on my plot, with masses of weeds. It was so disheartening that I came very close to giving up the plot.

I then started covering areas with black plastic weed suppressant and also cardboard to see the difference between the two methods. I couldn't get my hands on large pieces of cardboard so it was a pain to make sure it didn't blow away but I got some down.

When I came to dig over the areas both had suppressed the weeds to a good degree but there were a lot more slugs hiding under the cardboard! The plastic had let plenty of water through too though and the soil was still moist underneath.

Weed fabric that frays at the edges and then gets tangled up in things is horrible too.

I found this a problem with the stuff I got but I got myself one of these cordless soldering irons which is fantastic! Now I melt the edges and use it to create the holes to grow through which means no more fraying and something that is perfect to be re-used.



I don't have masses of time to spend on the plot and this means the time I do spend down there I don't want to be spent weeding every minute!

I'd definitely recommend covering the ground with something and personally, if you can't get hold of lots of big bits of cardboard, I'd say the dreaded weed suppressant isn't that much of a menace!

[Dusty Rhodes]

Rent a rototiller and till up the plot. Smooth surface and remove surface weeds with a rake afterwards.

[Snadger]

I won't drink bottled water because it tastes of plastic. I won't use plastic on the soil because it is an abomnation to the eye and God knows what chemicals leech from it.
Maybe if the plastic was covering an organic mulch and a mural was painted to look like a properly cultivated allotment, I could live with it...............

[Two_Sheds]

next year I hope to be organised enough to try green manures

You can still get some sown, it's not too late yet

there were a lot more slugs hiding under the cardboard!

Interesting. I've used both, and found more slugs under the plastic than under the card. Either way, it doesn't matter: they conveniently gather themselves into one spot, so I can easily scoop them up and into my potion

Rent a rototiller and till up the plot.

No!

Not if you have couch grass or bindweed, anyway.

If you do, a rotavator is a great way to take thousands of root cuttings

[Kaiya]

I use black landscape fabric too, although I found my heavy duty permeable fabric actually shed water as well as a tarp - I think water would percolate through if given a chance but when your beds are mounds it just runs off. No hardship with clay soil though - I had lovely warm weed-free friable soil in spring, rather than a quagmire. And in about 45m2 of covered soil I found about 3 slugs. I've found more slugs under my nasturtiums this year.

I think I need me a soldering iron. I hemmed the edges of mine with spots of duct tape, which works at stopping the fraying immensely but does eventually fall off. There is barely any frayed tape on my plot now though, and any that is there is more likely to have already been there due to a previous inhabitant also using fabric.

It's a tool like any other. Use it wrong, and you'll end up in a mess. Use it right and it's very useful. In the first year I used mine over winter as a salvage procedure to help me defeat the weeds before they defeated me. I took that up this spring and turned it into the paths. I have some spare I'll be using on a couch grass bed and on any beds I can't get enough cardboard to cover. I'm thinking of using it on a permanent fruit bed also. It's not cheap, but you can use the same bit several times, or in permenant beds continuously.

[Barking Postlethwaite]

I think there are horses for courses here, and a certain amount of personal preference. I've no doubt you can grow A1 vegetables using either green manures or digging techniques.

My plot was still a grassland field this April. It's still got a lot of perennial weed in it, quite a big slug problem and is a pretty heavy clay. For all of those reasons I want to dig it over for the winter and let the frost break up some of the clods, expose some of the roots and hopefully do for at least a proportion of the resident slug population.

If I had a longer-established, cleaner plot then I would be more concerned about conserving nutrients and soil structure so I can see a time in the future when I won't be doing things in quite the same way.

The other factor to consider is that I actually like the physical process of digging, although it sounds as if I am the only allotmenter left who does. It keeps me fit (or, more precisely, makes me less unfit than I would otherwise be) and I enjoy it. And for me enjoying it is every bit as important as maximising yields.

[Two_Sheds]

I think there are horses for courses here ...enjoying it is every bit as important as maximising yields.

Absolutely, and I like that you haven't dismissed the one or the other without trying both.

btw, I "don't dig" to maximise yields, I "don't dig" because I believe it's healthier for the soil and its organisms

If digging destroys slugs & pests, it is also going to destroy the good guys

[alldigging]

The other factor to consider is that I actually like the physical process of digging, although it sounds as if I am the only allotmenter left who does. It keeps me fit (or, more precisely, makes me less unfit than I would otherwise be) and I enjoy it. And for me enjoying it is every bit as important as maximising yields.

I quite like digging when I'm fit and well.

But cover all. And then uncover a bit and dig.
at least if it's all covered up you make it all look owned.

[Feral007]

I love black plastic. I'm moving about 300 metres of the stuff again this spring. As soon as I'm sure the snakes are not under it!

[wendy b]

bare soil overwinter

surely its better to weed it while the soil is still soft??

[rustylady]

surely its better to weed it while the soil is still soft??

Probably, but a lot depends on how weedy it is, what sort of weeds, and how much time you can spend on it.

[Two_Sheds]

surely its better to weed it while the soil is still soft??

The soil is incredibly soft after a few months under a mulch

[alldigging]

The soil is incredibly soft after a few months under a mulch

And the weeds may have evaporated away

[Two_Sheds]

Yes, all you'll be left with are a few roots. The best mulch I ever used was an old fence panel: it killed EVERYTHING, bar a couple of weak bindweed roots, which were simple to dig out. Really worthwhile.

As a bonus, the fence panel had a small army of frogs living under it too.

[Mikey]

The last couple of weeks I've been recovering a patch of grass, I've dug the ground down to a spades depth and turned the soil upside down, this I've then covered with a good layer of cardboard, I've built up sides around it to make a raised bed and will be covering it all with about 12 inches of horse muck this weekend. Its my intention to grow my spuds in it next year as they are very good at breaking down the soil structure, before using the beds for fruit trees and herbs the following year.