Keeping couch grass out of polytunnels
 

My niece lives on a farm in the Vale of York, rather sandy soil. It is
an organic farm. One of the problems is couch grass growing under the
edges of the polytunnel. The stolons grow about 4" deep and they grow
an astonishingly long way. It causes a LOT of work to get rid of it.

Others must have similar problems and have found answers. What are the
answers?

Michael Bell

--

Keeping couch grass out of polytunnels
 

"Michael Bell" wrote ...
My niece lives on a farm in the Vale of York, rather sandy soil. It is
an organic farm. One of the problems is couch grass growing under the
edges of the polytunnel. The stolons grow about 4" deep and they grow
an astonishingly long way. It causes a LOT of work to get rid of it.

Others must have similar problems and have found answers. What are the
answers?

Get some Dampcourse rubber/plastic stuff as used by builders, comes in a
roll and is about 11 inches wide, Dig this down vertically all around the
tunnel and it will be a barrier to shallow rooted weeds. You can push a
spade down all around to make a slit trench. Used it myself to protect my
garden from the Ground Elder taking over next door.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
W.of London. UK

Keeping couch grass out of polytunnels
 

In article ,
says...
My niece lives on a farm in the Vale of York, rather sandy soil. It is
an organic farm. One of the problems is couch grass growing under the
edges of the polytunnel. The stolons grow about 4" deep and they grow
an astonishingly long way. It causes a LOT of work to get rid of it.

Others must have similar problems and have found answers. What are the
answers?

Michael Bell


I use weedkiller which is not a lot of use to them, but I also have
recently got it out of one of our tunnels when renewing the cover as the
sides are trenched in so when they were dug out to fit the new cover we
were able to remove the couch, but as Janet has said you need a wide zone
that weeds can not grow in around the tunnel
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea

Keeping couch grass out of polytunnels
 

"Michael Bell" wrote in message
. uk...
My niece lives on a farm in the Vale of York, rather sandy soil. It is
an organic farm. One of the problems is couch grass growing under the
edges of the polytunnel. The stolons grow about 4" deep and they grow
an astonishingly long way. It causes a LOT of work to get rid of it.

Others must have similar problems and have found answers. What are the
answers?

Michael Bell

--
If anyone knows how to get rid of couch grass (we call it "twitch" here in
Leics) please let me know. Apart from bombing it or spending your whole
life digging up the rhizomes. No weedkiller, organic please.
Tina

How about slabbing around the perimeter of the polytunnel?