I've just turned about 25sq mtrs of my rather wild back garden into veggie
beds. After removing the turf, I dug the ground over and mixed in several
barrowloads of last summer's compost, which appeared to be about 75% rotted
down, but I judged it to be OK for digging into the new veg beds to improve
the somewhat clayish, soil. The compost was made from a well-mixed mixture
of stable straw, horse manure, and grass turfs and grass clippings.

Next came the question of what to cover it all with, to save myself hours
of weeding, come Spring. Someone here suggested "Polyethylenus negra". I
decided to try "Boxus Cardbordinus Maxima"! After all, it's free.

After covering every inch of the beds, I wetted it all down thoroughly, and
placed large stones every 2ft or so, to prevent the stuff from blowing
away. I am a bit concerned about the wind; I live in a spot that can get
very windy indeed quite frequently, especially in winter. I wonder if my
stones will suffice. My research tells me that most people cover the
cardboard in a couple of inches of tree bark or other mulch. I'd like to
avoid shelling out for tree bark if I can help it. I do have a great pile
of grass sods that I could use for extra weighting-down, but I'm not sure
how that would work out. I also enough remaining half-rotted compost to
cover the cardboard to a depth of about 1", but I fear that would just blow
away, as soon as the first dry, windy day arrived!

Perhaps someone here who has first-hand experience of this muching method
could advise me if they thing the stone-weighting method will be
satisfactory or not...

Thank you..

Al

On 31 Dec 2011 14:36:04 GMT, "AL_n" wrote:


I've just turned about 25sq mtrs of my rather wild back garden into veggie
beds. After removing the turf, I dug the ground over and mixed in several
barrowloads of last summer's compost, which appeared to be about 75% rotted
down, but I judged it to be OK for digging into the new veg beds to improve
the somewhat clayish, soil. The compost was made from a well-mixed mixture
of stable straw, horse manure, and grass turfs and grass clippings.

Next came the question of what to cover it all with, to save myself hours
of weeding, come Spring. Someone here suggested "Polyethylenus negra". I
decided to try "Boxus Cardbordinus Maxima"! After all, it's free.

After covering every inch of the beds, I wetted it all down thoroughly, and
placed large stones every 2ft or so, to prevent the stuff from blowing
away. I am a bit concerned about the wind; I live in a spot that can get
very windy indeed quite frequently, especially in winter. I wonder if my
stones will suffice. My research tells me that most people cover the
cardboard in a couple of inches of tree bark or other mulch. I'd like to
avoid shelling out for tree bark if I can help it. I do have a great pile
of grass sods that I could use for extra weighting-down, but I'm not sure
how that would work out. I also enough remaining half-rotted compost to
cover the cardboard to a depth of about 1", but I fear that would just blow
away, as soon as the first dry, windy day arrived!

Perhaps someone here who has first-hand experience of this muching method
could advise me if they thing the stone-weighting method will be
satisfactory or not...

Thank you..

Al

If you're going for the no-dig approach then, IME, you will need to
cover the cardboard with something to promote gradual rot-down. If
your stones are weighty enough they will prevent blowing away for an
initial period but how long that is depends on the weather. If the
cardboard gets wet it will weaken and wind in the right direction may
then tear it apart in between the stones.

If your purpose is simply to prevent weeds, at preferably no cost,
then you might try a visit to your local council tip and have a word
with the people there about the possibility of removing an amount of
carpitus oldicus which someone else has deposited there. This will be
more resilient than uncovered cardboard.

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling happily from the dryer end of Swansea Bay
because Santa's delivered a new weather station
so now I'll know how dry it is when it stops raining!

"AL_n" wrote in message
...

I've just turned about 25sq mtrs of my rather wild back garden into veggie
beds. After removing the turf, I dug the ground over and mixed in several
barrowloads of last summer's compost, which appeared to be about 75%
rotted
down, but I judged it to be OK for digging into the new veg beds to
improve
the somewhat clayish, soil. The compost was made from a well-mixed mixture
of stable straw, horse manure, and grass turfs and grass clippings.

Next came the question of what to cover it all with, to save myself hours
of weeding, come Spring. Someone here suggested "Polyethylenus negra". I
decided to try "Boxus Cardbordinus Maxima"! After all, it's free.

After covering every inch of the beds, I wetted it all down thoroughly,
and
placed large stones every 2ft or so, to prevent the stuff from blowing
away. I am a bit concerned about the wind; I live in a spot that can get
very windy indeed quite frequently, especially in winter. I wonder if my
stones will suffice. My research tells me that most people cover the
cardboard in a couple of inches of tree bark or other mulch. I'd like to
avoid shelling out for tree bark if I can help it. I do have a great pile
of grass sods that I could use for extra weighting-down, but I'm not sure
how that would work out. I also enough remaining half-rotted compost to
cover the cardboard to a depth of about 1", but I fear that would just
blow
away, as soon as the first dry, windy day arrived!

Perhaps someone here who has first-hand experience of this muching method
could advise me if they thing the stone-weighting method will be
satisfactory or not...

Thank you..

Al


Al you need to prevent the wind from getting under. It will get under at the
edges and joins. Cover the edges and if possible the joins with nothing more
than earth. I grew potatoes under long rows of poly sheeting. I just earthed
the edges. Never any trouble

Mike


--

....................................

I'm an Angel, honest ! The horns are there just to keep the halo straight.

....................................

"Jake" Nospam@invalid wrote in message
...
On 31 Dec 2011 14:36:04 GMT, "AL_n" wrote:


I've just turned about 25sq mtrs of my rather wild back garden into veggie
beds. After removing the turf, I dug the ground over and mixed in several
barrowloads of last summer's compost, which appeared to be about 75%
rotted
down, but I judged it to be OK for digging into the new veg beds to
improve
the somewhat clayish, soil. The compost was made from a well-mixed mixture
of stable straw, horse manure, and grass turfs and grass clippings.

Next came the question of what to cover it all with, to save myself hours
of weeding, come Spring. Someone here suggested "Polyethylenus negra". I
decided to try "Boxus Cardbordinus Maxima"! After all, it's free.

After covering every inch of the beds, I wetted it all down thoroughly,
and
placed large stones every 2ft or so, to prevent the stuff from blowing
away. I am a bit concerned about the wind; I live in a spot that can get
very windy indeed quite frequently, especially in winter. I wonder if my
stones will suffice. My research tells me that most people cover the
cardboard in a couple of inches of tree bark or other mulch. I'd like to
avoid shelling out for tree bark if I can help it. I do have a great pile
of grass sods that I could use for extra weighting-down, but I'm not sure
how that would work out. I also enough remaining half-rotted compost to
cover the cardboard to a depth of about 1", but I fear that would just
blow
away, as soon as the first dry, windy day arrived!

Perhaps someone here who has first-hand experience of this muching method
could advise me if they thing the stone-weighting method will be
satisfactory or not...

Thank you..

Al

If you're going for the no-dig approach then, IME, you will need to
cover the cardboard with something to promote gradual rot-down. If
your stones are weighty enough they will prevent blowing away for an
initial period but how long that is depends on the weather. If the
cardboard gets wet it will weaken and wind in the right direction may
then tear it apart in between the stones.

If your purpose is simply to prevent weeds, at preferably no cost,
then you might try a visit to your local council tip and have a word
with the people there about the possibility of removing an amount of
carpitus oldicus which someone else has deposited there. This will be
more resilient than uncovered cardboard.

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling happily from the dryer end of Swansea Bay
because Santa's delivered a new weather station
so now I'll know how dry it is when it stops raining!


Make sure it is carpitus oldicus and not carpitus newidicus because the
man made fibres such as nylon etc don't rot and you are left with a nasty
mess which is all tangled up with stuff which does grow through as some of
it separates.
Been there. Done that in our last house where we had a big garden :-(. Got
the mess in my memory

Mike

--

....................................

I'm an Angel, honest ! The horns are there just to keep the halo straight.

....................................

"AL_n" wrote in
:


I've just turned about 25sq mtrs of my rather wild back garden into
veggie beds. After removing the turf, I dug the ground over and mixed
in several barrowloads of last summer's compost, which appeared to be
about 75% rotted down, but I judged it to be OK for digging into the
new veg beds to improve the somewhat clayish, soil. The compost was
made from a well-mixed mixture of stable straw, horse manure, and
grass turfs and grass clippings.

Next came the question of what to cover it all with, to save myself
hours of weeding, come Spring. Someone here suggested "Polyethylenus
negra". I decided to try "Boxus Cardbordinus Maxima"! After all, it's
free.

After covering every inch of the beds, I wetted it all down
thoroughly, and placed large stones every 2ft or so, to prevent the
stuff from blowing away. I am a bit concerned about the wind; I live
in a spot that can get very windy indeed quite frequently, especially
in winter. I wonder if my stones will suffice. My research tells me
that most people cover the cardboard in a couple of inches of tree
bark or other mulch. I'd like to avoid shelling out for tree bark if I
can help it. I do have a great pile of grass sods that I could use for
extra weighting-down, but I'm not sure how that would work out. I also
enough remaining half-rotted compost to cover the cardboard to a depth
of about 1", but I fear that would just blow away, as soon as the
first dry, windy day arrived!

Perhaps someone here who has first-hand experience of this muching
method could advise me if they thing the stone-weighting method will
be satisfactory or not...

Thank you..

Al


If you are worried you can fill milk cartons with water and put them in
spaces where you think the most damaging winds will come from.
Worry about mulch in spring, when the weeds rear that ugly head.

I am doing what you are doing, and no I have no first hand experience but I
do know that I have weighted milk containers to keep my netting firmly on
the ground, and subsequently my "Polyethylenus negra" (Black polythene) has
blocked out any sunlight that has prompted the weeds to re-grow.

"Boxus Cardbordinus Maxima", just make sure you take out the staples and
give them to someone who can use them, or alternativly, you should use them
where "Helius non Shinious"

Baz

On Sat, 31 Dec 2011 14:36:04 +0000, AL_n wrote:

I do have a great pile
of grass sods that I could use for extra weighting-down, but I'm not
sure how that would work out.

That would be a waste. Stack the sods up, green side down and wrap the
stack in Polyethylenus negra (yes, it was I) for a couple of years.
You'll end up with a lovely heap of loam.



--
gardening on the beach in Jersey

"'Mike'" wrote in
:

Make sure it is carpitus oldicus and not carpitus newidicus because
the man made fibres such as nylon etc don't rot and you are left with
a nasty mess which is all tangled up with stuff which does grow
through as some of it separates.
Been there. Done that in our last house where we had a big garden :-(.
Got the mess in my memory

Mike



Thanks for the replies. Already, I can see a problem arising with my
efforts: After wetting down the cardbordinum maximus, it is delaminating,
and thus becoming much more prone to wind-destruction. When the outside
skins come unstuck from the central corrugated element, one is left with
little more that three layers of brown paper, which is extremely prone to
wind destruction. I had thought of buying polythenus negra perforatum
(a.k.a. weedium membranus) to lay over the cardbordinum. What do you think?
the stuff could be pinned down with pegs all the way around the edges.

I gather membrane alone is not enough to suppress weeds, but a layer of
cardboard under the membrane should be effective, I think. The only
disadvantage, is the cost, perhaps. So perhaps I'll look into the carpet
option. But it would take a ages to rot, yes? Perhaps that's a good thing,
is it? I suppose it means it can be used repeatedly for a few years before
it starts tearing apart, yes?

Al

Jake Nospam@invalid wrote in
:

carpitus oldicus
laughing out loud(LOL)

one could use "soilleafmouldcus improvicus" or as a weedkiller "oldlinocuss
getitoutofmyhouseicuss.

Just nice.
Baz

Cheers, Jake
=======================================
Urgling happily from the dryer end of Swansea Bay
because Santa's delivered a new weather station
so now I'll know how dry it is when it stops raining!

In article ,
says...

Perhaps someone here who has first-hand experience of this muching method
could advise me if they thing the stone-weighting method will be
satisfactory or not...

depends how many stones you've got and how big they are :-)
If you run out, bricks slabs planks, fence stobs or branches work too.


Janet.

In article , Nospam@invalid
says...

If your purpose is simply to prevent weeds, at preferably no cost,
then you might try a visit to your local council tip and have a word
with the people there about the possibility of removing an amount of
carpitus oldicus which someone else has deposited there. This will be
more resilient than uncovered cardboard.

If you do, be sure to get canvas backed, preferably something slowly
biodegradable like wool or sisal.

Foam or rubber backed nylon disintegrates very messily into a zillion non
biodegradable bits.When I need some old carpet I just ask the local
carpet fitter and he drops some off free; it saves him money because he
has to pay for disposal of old carpet he removes before fitting new. I
don't use carpet on edible crop beds; they may leach all kind of chemicals
from dyes etc into the soil. Useful for paths though.

Janet

"Janet" wrote in message
...
In article ,
says...

Perhaps someone here who has first-hand experience of this muching method
could advise me if they thing the stone-weighting method will be
satisfactory or not...

depends how many stones you've got and how big they are :-)
If you run out, bricks slabs planks, fence stobs or branches work too.

as do pallets, old washing machines, settees and many other bulky things,
BUT, they all have to be cleared. So?

Stop the wind getting under. Seal the edges. Earth.

Mike


--

....................................

I'm an Angel, honest ! The horns are there just to keep the halo straight.

....................................

On Dec 31 2011, 2:36*pm, "AL_n" wrote:
I've just turned about 25sq mtrs of my rather wild back garden into veggie
beds. After removing the turf, I dug the ground over and mixed in several
barrowloads of last summer's compost, which appeared to be about 75% rotted
down, but I judged it to be OK for digging into the new veg beds to improve
the somewhat clayish, soil. The compost was made from a well-mixed mixture
of stable straw, horse manure, and grass turfs and grass clippings.

Next came the question of what to cover it all with, to save myself hours
of weeding, come Spring. Someone here suggested "Polyethylenus negra". I
decided to try "Boxus Cardbordinus Maxima"! After all, it's free.

After covering every inch of the beds, I wetted it all down thoroughly, and
placed large stones every 2ft or so, to prevent the stuff from blowing
away. I am a bit concerned about the wind; I live in a spot that can get
very windy indeed quite frequently, especially in winter. I wonder if my
stones will suffice. My research tells me that most people cover the
cardboard in a couple of inches of tree bark or other mulch. I'd like to
avoid shelling out for tree bark if I can help it. I do have a great pile
of grass sods that I could use for extra weighting-down, but I'm not sure
how that would work out. I also enough remaining half-rotted compost to
cover the cardboard to a depth of about 1", but I fear that would just blow
away, as soon as the first dry, windy day arrived!

Perhaps someone here who has first-hand experience of this muching method
could advise me if they thing the stone-weighting method will be
satisfactory or not...

Thank you..

Al

If it's that windy, you want to be thinking about fixing up some
windbreaks.
You will never get stuff to grow without.

In article 26e78d18-c7b5-4306-bfc0-1067d9ea3414
@n39g2000yqh.googlegroups.com, says...

On Dec 31 2011, 2:36*pm, "AL_n" wrote:
I am a bit concerned about the wind; I live in a spot that can get
very windy indeed quite frequently, especially in winter.

If it's that windy, you want to be thinking about fixing up some
windbreaks.
You will never get stuff to grow without.

In this very windy seaside garden, I find the best windbreaks are small-
leaf, dense-leaf and narrow-leaf plants grown close together, (many New
Zealand natives qualify) or natives like hawthorn, pruned to dense mound
shapes. Planted as small as possible so the root has chance to develop
before it's called on to anchor a large sail.

Janet.

Baz wrote in news:Xns9FCCA0EEB7781bazfawltycom@
69.16.176.251:

one could use "soilleafmouldcus improvicus"

Leafmould sounds like a good idea. It sounds preferable to soil, as weeds
(even little ones) are not going to take root in it so easily.

One thing concernd me about this whole cardboard idea: Doesn't it prevent
rainwater (or hose-water) getting through to the soil?

Al

In article ,
says...

Baz wrote in news:Xns9FCCA0EEB7781bazfawltycom@
69.16.176.251:

one could use "soilleafmouldcus improvicus"

Leafmould sounds like a good idea. It sounds preferable to soil, as weeds
(even little ones) are not going to take root in it so easily.

One thing concernd me about this whole cardboard idea: Doesn't it prevent
rainwater (or hose-water) getting through to the soil?

In my high-rainfal area, no.

If you lived in a very parched area that might be a consideration; but
if you have made planting holes through the card that should divert any
rain to where it's most needed. Card also prevents evaporation of any soil
moisture.

(Another Permaculture principal is to conserve soil moisture and water,
and reduce or eliminate artificial irrigation).

Janet