Allotment Stuff > The Basics

How lazy should I be?

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Hugh_Jones:
As also will ground elder, mares tail, couch grass, and bracken (to name but a few).  Strictly they travel sub-surface level, but the effect is the same, and they will happily tunnel under a 6ft wide strip of concrete and come up around the edges.

allotment_chick:
Hi Paul - enviromesh is the one that protects crops - I think what you might need is woven polyproylene weed supressing fabric - pricey at about £80 a roll, but from experience I can vouch for its efficacy - especially against bindweed and thistle, although couch gives it a run for its money as the sharp shoots can pierce through if the weave is a bit loose!

Otherwise Ceri can suggest some plastic sheet you can get from builders merchants that is quite tough - can't remember the name of now...

I also find the heavy duty boxes that computer equipment comes in are very useful at knocking the weeds back - they last a year or so usually.

By way of an experiment I'm going to grow watermelon this year to see if it can beat the weeds, too.   8)

AC x

Ceri:
Its called visqueen and sells for about £30 for a really long roll.  I can't remember the proper dimensions but its about 2 mtrs wide and seems to unroll forever (its all folded up within the roll so is pretty portable) Go to a proper builder's merchants not a retail B & Q type where it will cost a fortune.  Visqueen is like damp proof membrane, very thick, very pliable and fairly heavy.

pbjohnson:
thanks for all being so helpful.  Visqueen it is ... down with those weed roots!

The gardener:
Sorry Paul, AC is right environmesh is protective sheeting.

I just wrote it down from memory, and obviously that has failed me

What I meant was porous horticultural sheeting, of which there are various types and quality, and with quality goes price.

If you go to http://www.kayshorticulture.com/ and look in catalogue 1 you will find mention there of what I mean.

I find this place to be among the cheapest 'mail order' companies for any type of gardening equipment, so hopefully you will find what you want there.

Best of luck, and my apologies again for misleading you.

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