My New BOL/Allotment Diary

[featherstick]

I have some views on carpet but I'm also aware that I'm chipping in every time you post something so do let me know if it's welcome on my part.

[Arzosah]

Danny - check out the free pdf of aquaponics design that I posted, if you like.

Featherstick - sharing information and views is always welcome.

[Hamradioop]

Featherstick any positive posts are all ways welcome and you seem to have a wealth of knowledge on Horticulture and this forum is about sharing knowledge. Kev

[dannytsg]

I have some views on carpet but I'm also aware that I'm chipping in every time you post something so do let me know if it's welcome on my part.

Please feel free to chip in. The whole purpose of this thread is to chart our progress and also benefit from other people's experience and knowledge.

[featherstick]

My views on carpet are jaundiced because I've had to spend days removing it from both my allotments and it was long, tedious and difficult work. Carpet doesn't really keep weeds down. It traps moisture, mud and seeds, and weeds quickly propagate on it, it provides a "runway" for perennial roots to spread underneath, it integrates with the soil making it difficult to lift to knock back the weeds that it is helping to propogate, and eventually someone (probably me) will have to remove masses of amalgamated carpet-soil-weed-root-matrix from the allotment in order to get back to a growing surface.

That's not to say it couldn't work in e.g. a polytunnel which is cleaner and drier than outside. Mypex though is much better for weed control on paths and borders. It lasts forever, it can be lifted for root control and replaced easily, and it's relatively cheap.

[Arzosah]

Thats really interesting , because I would've supported carpet as a weed suppressant, but when I *have* laid it in the garden, what you describe has been exactly my experience Noticing the results of what we do is pretty important, hey?

When I've weeded and then laid bark chippings - perennial weeds that haven't quite been dug up still try to come through, but they can then be killed with a systemic, and annual weeds *try* to muscle in, but because they're trying to root in loose bark chippings, they're really easy to pull away.

[dannytsg]

My intention is carpet down as a barrier with woodchip on top for my paths

[Arzosah]

Sounds spot on to me! And you can often do a bit of skip diving for carpet offcuts like that - its expensive for firms to send it to rubbish or recycling, so they'll often be glad if you take it. I've always asked when I skipdive, and no one's ever turned me down

[junmist]

I do that with carpet it works a treat can't really say that I have had any problems with weeds running underneath it but I might just have been lucky, the tip is to cut it wider than you need to stop the weeds coming up the side of the path.

[featherstick]

Carpet probably works great for the bloke that puts it down, and then a lot less well for whoever has the allotment next!