GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post - Vegatables that help convert grassland into workable veggie patch?

Janet · 21-12-2011, 10:38 AM posted to uk.rec.gardening

In article 7b359958-ee09-4751-a1be-
, says...

On Dec 20, 2:10*pm, Janet wrote:
In article 1c190a01-4547-46e7-884a-
, says...

On Dec 19, 11:42*pm, Baz wrote:
NT wrote :

+1. Cardboard is excellent. I'd also plant something light excluding
the first yr, like nettles, pumpkins, courgettes, rhubarb, etc. If
you've got compostable material, that can go down under the cardboard.
Permaculture will wipe out most of the unnecessary physical work that
annual gardens require year on year, but it means getting used to a
whole different set of fruit & veg.

NT

I am very interested in this method of gardening, but why does it mean
getting used to a whole different set of fruit & veg?
Can't we just cut a hole through the cardboard and plant our usual veg.?

Just asking before I lay the cardboard and chuck the muck on top.

I trust you mean muck under the cardboard.

* IME *better to put the muck on top to help hold down the cardboard and
stop it blowing away.. By the time the much has weathered the carboard
will have disintegrated.

that means the cardboard will disintegrate pretty quickly.

Yes, that's the intention. The cardboard is strictly temporary, only
required for a few months to defeat photosynthesis by the primary growth
(weeds, grass), killing them without need for digging or weedkiller.

Sticks or
stones can keep it down ok.

They would; but a true permaculturist would be saving sticks and stones
for longterm use (making swales, or drains). It also makes the
manure fulfill two functions, (a permaculture principle) while reducing
the required labour inputs from three to two (a permaculture and Janet
pinciple).

The whole point of permaculture is that it mostly uses perennials, so
you dont have to keep replanting,

*Permaculture crop production was developed for (and works in) countries
with much higher, brighter light levels, longer growing seasons etc than
the cloudy cool latitudes of the UK. I have yet to see a permanent, or
even longlived, successful fully perennial Permaculture crop garden in the
UK.

* However, UK limitations are no bar to using a Permaculture method of bed
construction in the UK, which you then plant otherwise.

* Janet.

There are such in the wild in Britain, on woodland edge, eg blackthorn
with blackberry growing under it.

That natural combination is not a permanent sustainable planting
though; it's transitional.

Janet