On 31/08/2011 23:33, NT wrote:
On Aug 31, 7:53 pm, wrote:
On Wed, 31 Aug 2011 08:28:29 +0100, "Charlie Pridham"

wrote:

"john wrote in message
...
Neighbour who is unable to do gardening work themselves, has a serious
bamboo invasion in the garden of the house they have just bought. It's in
the rear garden with only room enough to bring a machine in the width of a
wheelbarrow. (due to a neighbour on the shared rear communal passage
moving his fence and just grabbing extra room for his garden).

What they want is a garden with *minimum* maintenance. To clear the
bamboo first would it be better to pay someone to try and dig the roots up
(the rear passage way entrance is only wide enough for a wheelbarrow) or
to just keep chopping the bamboo down for a year or so, until it gets
demoralised? Grateful for any advice on this.

Also if the bamboo is finally cleared what would be a minimum maintenance
ground cover please?

If you cut the bamboo down, when it regrows hit it with Roundup type weed
killer (bamboo is sensitive to this as its really just grass) once its dead
it can be dug out.

I would urge against chippings, they are certainly not low maintenance -
everything seeds into mine, and so called weed suppressant fabric only takes
a season to form good humus over it and weeds grow perfectly well then

I disagree. Although it does depend critically on how much dead leaf
material falls onto the space and some minor work is necessary.

We did exactly as I described for the village halls patio garden with
shrubs planted through weed fabric and a deep mulch of plum slate on the
plantings and golden flint on the "lawns". It isn't quite perfect but it
is a lot easier than having to cut grass or maintain bare soil. The only
things that really give trouble are the thistles from a neighbouring
field. They can punch through the weed fabric or find any weak overlaps.
Pulling them out brings something like 6' of white root with it sometimes.

If the stone mulch is not deep enough then all bets are off.

Having invested earlier this year in a shedload of bark, I cannot but
agree.

Bark degrades to humus and soil in a year or two. Stone doesn't. You can
criticise doing it on aesthetic grounds but not on efficacy. It is also
a heck or a weight of material to manhandle around. OK though if you
have a tame farmer with a tractor to help out.

I have just taken delivery of a quantity of suppressant fabric (with
hold downs which look on inspection to me likely to be ineffective).
Because I've procured it, I'm going to have a go. The local urban
foxes will probably make a mess of it - the illegitimi jumped on top
of a small (reinforced with chicken wire) agriframe last night
containing my last outdoor lettuce and coriander sowing and a small
number of dwarf beans.

So, Charlie, how do keep the weeds down around your fruit bushes?

A pretty effective way to eridicate well rooted weeds is to put down
cardboard, and leave it there. In a garden it can be covered with
something to make it look ok. It lasts a good year or so, and by then
virtually everything has given up. I'm not sure it would stop bamboo
growing though.

You must have puny perennial weeds if they are put off with a bit of
cardboard. The thistles round here would punch right through it.

Regards,
Martin Brown