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Allotment : Porous plastic sheets
As we all know, one of the biggest pains, is digging and weeding each year.
It's particularly annoying when you lift the spuds in Autumn and you note how 'clean' the soil is - i.e. lack of weeds due to the cover provided by the potato foliage. The following Spring, the same plot needs to be dug and weeded. One of my neighbours has been given ten 9' x 9' porous plastic sheets. She uses one for earlies, another for lates, another for leeks and so on. When she lift the spuds, she'll cover the ground with a sheet. The areas used for cabbage, may have some weeds and grass, she doesn't weed, but simply covers the harvested area with plastic. It sounds a great way to reduce digging, my only concern is that plastic is a nice haven for slugs and snails. 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. .. |
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