I have done quite a bit of lurking on this site and thought I should register and introduce myself....
So here goes...
My name is Nats, and I kill houseplants. The darn things apparently need water. I have better success with outdoor plants. The elements give them a fighting chance.
The good news is that hopefully I will improve as I am now a stay-at-home mum and recently I have been lucky enough to get an allotment.
I have cleared loads of brambles off part of the plot, but I am not sure how to get rid of the turf/grass covering the rest.
The roots are a good 6 inches down and digging it up is taking off a lot of soil with the roots, and I dont know what to do with it.
So I would really appreciate any advice!
Thanks for any help
Nats
Hiya, Nats, welcome out of the lurkers ;D
depends on what you want to do
when we took our plot on, it was full of couch and marram-type grass, under water for 3 months of the year..we put down very thick cardboard, built sides on the beds and filled them, keeps the crops away from the water, :)
Welcome to the site Nats :)
If you have a look through some of the recent posts, you will find lots of answers to you question.
Make sure you take before and during pictures so we can be kept upto date, your friends and family will apritiate all the hard work by looking at them aswell.
Neil
Welcome to the site Natsb, You don't want to get rid of all that good soil with the roots. Unless they are couch/bindweed you can just turn it under... if you have a good depth of soil then even better. If you cover it with good quality (thick) black plastic for a month/six weeks it will kill off the top and rot making it easier to turn or tease out the roots you don't want.. ;D
welcome to the site from a fellow lurker its nice to come out into the light isn't it ;) :D.
sounds as though you might have couch :-X there are many here that will advice you on how to get rid of it organically or otherwise, so i'll let them get on with it. i just wanted to welcome you.
The site seems to be well drained, and the soil seems quite good, so I really can't justify the cost of raised beds.
But the beds I want to make will be 4ftx10ft, using the idea of the raised beds, but just digging them out instead of building them up.
I just need to get rid of the grass where I want the beds, though I plan to leave grass paths between the beds until I can sort out something else.
I don't know what the grass is - but don't think its couch.... it just seems like neglected overgrown garden turf. The whole site was run down and closed and the council just opened it up again so there is no-one who knows much!
How deep do I need to turn the grass under to stop it regrowing? Or to stop it interferring with new crops?
I will check out the other recent posts
Thanks!
If you have any depth of soil, and it is just meadow grass 6-8" is enough, but excluding the light with plastic will do most of the job for you... watch out for grass re invading if you keep grass paths.. :)
Hi
I think excluding light is the best way of killing it off (but no doubt there are other ways!) I faced the same sort of problem and covered the ground with cardboard, tarpaulins, anything I could get hold of really. But you need to make sure the edges are buried (soil/turf) and weigh it down. It will take anywhere between 3 to 6 months to kill it off its couch grass.
Someone on our site told me about covering the grass with a think layer of fresh manure and then covering it with tarpaulins etc. apparently this burns it off, and its probably a bit quicker. But not sure as I haven't tried it.
Good luck
Sorry Nats, I didn't mean to sound so blunt (not very good with words :))
Neil
Its okay Neil - I didn't take it wrong way!
I know there are loads of very informative posts so I am working through them all. Also I am sure every new person comes on and asks the same questions!
To be honest I now think maybe it is couch grass, or at least I am not confident about burying the stuff only to risk it regrowing... no short cuts I guess.. I really dont want most of the plot out of commision for the better part of the growing season while I wait for the nasty stuff to die under plastic. So I will just have to dig/sieve and suffer!
Thanks for all the replies
Nats
if you can get any well rotted manure, put the cardboard down, cover with muck, then plastic, cut a hole and plant some squash or courgettes..by the time the plant is finished, so will the weeds be ;D
Hmmmm... that might be a good plan for the beds that I was planning to put squash in this year - cuts down the total amount I have to clear before planting ;D.
Thanks!
Hello Nats and welcome to A4A from me too. :)
So glad you joined us...Ask any questions you have.
No such thing as a silly question on this forum. ;)
Lauren :D
Hi, Natsb and welcome to the world of couch-haters!
Heya Nats. If you live near the sea, just cover it up with a thick layer of seaweed.
Hello and welcome Nats!
The way to tell if it is couch grass is to look at the roots - if they are long white and have pointy (nearly sharp) bits then it is couch - but it sounds to me that you may just have a "fallow" plot.
If it isn't couch I would double dig it - ie. With a spade take out one row and load it aside dig next row and put it grass down in the hole of first row and follow through until the end when you put the first bits you dug up into the last. Do this with your 4ft rows as against the long way.
I would only remove the tap roots of dandelions and then use the top soil of the bed for this year. I did this with a bad patch of mine and nothing much came back through - it is quick and you can use your beds pretty much straight away.
If it is couch though I, personally, would week killer it and wait a few weeks until it has died and just turn it in!
Old Bird
PS as I was writing this another post has come in re seaweed. Absolutely if you can get some just sling it over - I was out "vraicing" (thanks Baccyman) on Sunday and I got 20 bags of the stuff and still need loads more! Job for the weekend again I think!
;D
Does seeweed kill the couch grass :D? or would it be used in place of the plastic? I'm not that far from the sea (half hour drive).
Last night I decided I needed retail therapy - I grew up in Africa and have been wanting a 'budza' - or as it seems to be known here, an 'azada'. Following some of the old posts on this site, (Thanks Neil ;))I have ordered a medium one, and a right angled fork and I am now feeling more confident about clearing the plot.
I will be down at the plot tomorrow to check the roots!
Quote from: Natsb on February 13, 2009, 11:25:47
Does seeweed kill the couch grass :D? or would it be used in place of the plastic? I'm not that far from the sea (half hour drive).
If you put a nice thick layer on, nothing underneath grows. It is just like a heavy mulch. I would also suggest making holes inthe seaweed mulch and planting potatoes. Just keep the growing potatoes mulched as well to stop them going green.
Hello and welcome.
Lots us useful advice here, and for long-term I would definitely agree with the double-digging advice.
But it's February and I assume you want to get some ground prepared for planting up this spring. In that case, mark out a bed, lift the turf off (stack it and you'll end up with some very useful potting compost) and then dig or fork it over. If the ground has been fallow for a few seasons, there should be enough goodness in the soil to see you through one season.
But it's also a very wet February! I guess the soil in Sussex is as water-logged as it is here in Middlesex, which is why so much soil is coming away with the roots. My advice is to leave the digging for a week or two until the soil dries out a bit. (Yes I know - I'm frustrated at not being able to get on with things as well!!)
Hi Nats
Wouldn't have thought that it would be worth your while taking a trip to coast just to collect sea weed - but if you were close or passing by it should be worth it. It doesn't kill weeds - it acts like any mulch in stopping light getting to the weeds and them dying through lack of light. But this works the same with any mulch not necessarily sea weed.
Seaweed is full of "good stuff" for plants etc and if you look at any proprietory fertilising products in the garden centres - most of them have seaweeed in!
Good luck with your plot anyway - it is so frustrating this time of year when you can't through either weather or wet conditions can't get on!!
Old Bird
;D
Agree with Trevor D, I'm slowly stripping the turf off my 'new' half plot to make beds and paths, and it is rotting down nicely where we have used it to fill two large ditches. However, in the past few weeks the stripped areas are partly covered in sitting water!
Just have to be patient and let it dry out enough to dig and mulch heavily with mushroom compost. Once that is done, I'm going to use weed suppressing membrane over the path areas, black plastic over where the potatoes are going to go to pre-warm the soil, and them cover the other beds before planting up in March to help suppress the weeds that will try and grow (the whole plot is a mass of dandelion plants!)
Hi nats and welcome, all the correct advise has been given, with the soil this wet digging will be a nightmare, as Trevor said skim off an inch of the turf and stack upside down, cover and mulch. ;D ;D ;D