I managed to get a massive roll of weed control fabric from the wonderful aldi shop. My raised beds are quite small so I was thibking about putting the weed frabric down there the beds on top would this work
Quotedown there the beds on top would this work
Am I reading this properly?
Are you asking if you should put the beds on top of the fabric? or vice versa the fabric on top of the beds?
The answer is the latter is the correct way i.e. on top of the soil, then you cut slots in the fabric to plant your plant!
unless you're thinking of it for paths :)
sorry its me , What I was thinking of doing was putting a layer on the ground , then putting the raised beds on top, and filling them with soil, would this work. I am going to be using them to do paths aswell between my raised beds with woodship on top hopefully
The correct way is as Tee Gee has suggested.
Depends how deep your beds will be. The problem with fabric then soil is that you can't grow anything that likes/needs a deep root run. So not for root crops, but might get away with it for things like beetroot, lettuce, spinach that are fairly shallow rooted.
Why do you want to do it that way round - perennial weeds??
try sticking thick cardboard under your soil, then plant into it, use the other methods for things with bigger roots, through the weed control ? :)
Just wanted to say thank you for suggesting weed control fabric for the paths, I was ummming and ahhhing over what to use.
I cannot remember what its called but I presume it is a never ending weed. I am using the raised beds for lettuce, radish and things like that, cause I am doing about 6 different types of lettuce and little pring onions so they are not very deep roots, would it work then.
Give it a go with one of your beds, maybe try manics suggestion for some of the others. I have also used thick cardboard and it works really well.
I might try one the way I said and then one with cardboard, I have seeb others using cardboard with alot of success, worth a go
I have used cardboard to stop weeds in my raised beds then a layer of manure (8 months old) then topped the lot with mole hill soil, used weed suppressant in the paths then topped that with shredded bark (delivered free from tree surgeon).
:)
Cardboard's far better for that job than fabric, as it rots down. After a year, you can plant parsnips or whatever you want.
Surely the effectiveness of the fabric presupposes a covering of gravel or somesuch?
Certainly the weeds in our Dwarf French Bean bed grew taller than the Beans!
If there is a depth of soil over the material, weeds will just grow happily on top.