"Tim Jesson" wrote in message

"Bertie Doe" wrote in message

I don't know if anyone saw BBc2's Natural World on 4th April, where
Rebecca
Hosking, mentioned the amount of damage done by the plough, to beneficial
insect life. Most of the friendly creepy-crawlies live in the top 2
inches.
The plough (or gardeners spade) subjects the life-forms to sunlight and
death, which in turn requires extra fertiliser to compensate.

These rolls of porous plastic have been available in gdn centres for
years.
Anyone used them? How long do they last and is the slug/snail thing a big
problem. Can slits be cut in them and have plants (say lettuce and leeks)
grow thru' them, or are they simply a weed suppressant? TIA.
.


I use woven plastic to suppress the weeds in an uncultivated part of the
lotty and in the walkways between the beds. I did plant some brassicas
through slits once but sadly my pesky foxes pulled up the sheets and duly
decapitated the plants with only one or two surviving.

Using this sheet with carpet to add strength to the most used walkways is
a good combo. The soil beneath the sheet remains very wet and is drawn
into the drying beds which obviously evaporate the moisture and dry out.

Anyway, just one thing, if you don't have couch (which as you say isn't
great with acid), you probably won't be very successful with Kale as the
Kale is a lime lover. You will get much better results by liming the soil.

I bought the porous rolls this morning. They are quite delicate and I have
decided to increase their longevity, by not cutting slits in them. I will
simply use them as a Winter cover. I don't lime, but I use manure every
other year and 'potato feed' pellets. I'm about 500' amsl and I can see
farmers using lime.
My neighbour bought some bare-root Spring Cabbage from the local market last
year, but it turned out to be Kale. I had some on Sunday, in Dr.Hessayon
book p59, it looks a bit like 'Hungry Gap' it was milder than I expected.
..