On Wed, 12 Nov 2014 19:32:22 +0000, Janet wrote:

In article ,
lid says...

Carpet is also better as it allows water through

Isn't that a bad thing if you are trying to kill couch grass?

Doesn't matter. Lack of light kills plants.


Actually it's positive, because the trouble with closing off the soil
altogether is that the lack of water (and associated oxygenation) causes
it to become very heavy over time.


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Gardening in Lower Normandy

On 12/11/2014 19:55, Emery Davis wrote:
On Wed, 12 Nov 2014 19:32:22 +0000, Janet wrote:

In article ,
lid says...

Carpet is also better as it allows water through

Isn't that a bad thing if you are trying to kill couch grass?

Doesn't matter. Lack of light kills plants.


Actually it's positive, because the trouble with closing off the soil
altogether is that the lack of water (and associated oxygenation) causes
it to become very heavy over time.


I thought that the idea of covering the couch grass was to bring the
runners to the surface so they can be gathered up without digging, not
to kill them, but it's a slow job and I also would be using Round up
even though I don't like it for many jobs. This is one place for it.
David @ a damp side of Swansea Bay (I should say saturated)

On Wed, 12 Nov 2014 20:48:52 +0000, David wrote:

I thought that the idea of covering the couch grass was to bring the
runners to the surface so they can be gathered up without digging, not
to kill them, but it's a slow job and I also would be using Round up
even though I don't like it for many jobs. This is one place for it.
D

I think the roots will grow into/through almost anything given time. I
agree, glyphosate is the best solution for couch grass.



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Gardening in Lower Normandy

Many years ago I took on an allotment that had recently been opened. One man had rented the plot before me, and given up. I thought I would try the old trick, grow potatoes. The soil was terrible, no life in it. I put in one row of potatoes and soon realised that something needed to be done. I had access to an animal breeding unit where the animals were kept on sawdust. By the time I got it, it was urine sodden with a whole range of different animal faeces. I spread this out and put in another three rows of potatoes. The first row of potatoes produced about the same number of potatoes as I had planted. The other three were amazing. I decided to spread sawdust over the rest of the plot and leave it for the winter. This plot was full of couch grass and I found that by spreading the sawdust over the ground a couple of inched deep the couch grass quickly grew through it, but what amazed me was that all the roots came up the to sawdust and were easily removed. It shouldn't be too difficult to get some sawdust and soak it in liquid manure and leave it over winter as a mulch, and then dig it in as a fertiliser. You are not left with anything to get rid of afterwards.

Thank you for this posting.

Although it will be difficult to find animals on sawdust in our region
(nor would I probably condone it) the description is very interesting
and should lead to a few good ideas.

On Thu, 13 Nov 2014 19:49:50 +0100,
Bigal wrote:

It shouldn't be too difficult to get some sawdust and soak
it in liquid manure and leave it over winter as a mulch, and then dig it
in as a fertiliser.

Sawdust and dung are still available and the sawdust being the only
variation in a well-established procedure, I shall give it a try.

Unfortunately, our lumber mills begin to understand what they were
wasting for too long and took to *selling* sawdust (for money). Who told
them...

Bye,

Michael

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Location: Lower Normandy (Orne), France
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