Topic: carpet as mulch

[beesknees]

morning! i'm also a newcomer to the wonderful world of the allotment and have to clear an overgrown site. we're tackling the plot slowly and plan to put some carpet down but can you tell me if you can use the felt type of underlay too?

[wardy]

You can use carpet but not the foam backed variety which will break up into zillions of bits.

You can chuck cardboard down on top of your cut down weeds as well.  It won;t last long but it will rot down but if you've got nowt else it's ok

[philcooper]

Beesknees,

Felt underlay is great.

As wardy says, don't use the foam backed carpet and don't use nylon carpet fro long term work - it "breaks down" into long strands of nylon, which don't break down any further.

You can therefore use nylon carpet for around 6 months but then it needs to be removed to the recycling place (don't burn it - it creates all sorts of nasty smells and substances) - remove it when dry - it's very very heavy when wet

Phil

[Derek]

Unfortunately most of the carpeting in the UK at the moment has a Polypropylene primary backing and this doesn't breakdown/biodegrade...The largest sales of carpeting in the UK at the moment has a large Polypropylene face fibre content too.

The previous tenant of one of my plots has used a carpet with a construction containing Polyprop. and its a devil to get rid of.

When removing the remnents I found the underside a breeding ground for slugs and promtly made a note not to use it in future

Derek

[teresa]

Oh when I started to clear my plot
I used an old wollen blankets plastic tablecloths that had seen better days then someone left me a large piece of lino so kind yep it did look a bit strange but it worked to stop the light from getting to the weeds stopped them growing.
I have seen carpet strips layed between rows of rasberries to keep them clean of weeds it also helps to keep moisture in the ground.
good luck with your lottie Beesknees make sure you have a chair to take a rest and straighten up but hot baths and painkillers do work ha ha.

[beesknees]

thanks for the advice.  now that the sun is shining and the weather is warming up it's going to be all systems go.
 i bought lots of seeds from lidl ( thanks to a tip off from this excellent site).  put some broad beans in and the potatoes will be ready to plant soon.  next i want to quickly start an asparagus bed so that i don't waste a whole year.
a chair is on the list of things to get but have to buy a shed to keep it in first!