Hi all,
I have recently go my first allotment and already posted (thanks for all the responses on that post it really helped) about how to start clearing it. As there is long grass growing on the plot, the first obvious thing was to cut the grass with a strimmer. We have managed to clear just over two thirds of the plot, however we have been hampered by an old fence which is held together by barbed wire. Most of the posts have fallen over in to the long grass and this has made clearing this a difficult task. We need to go back and clear the barbed wire with some cutters.
My questions is this, with the grass that we have cut and bagged, can we use this to put over the ground we have exposed, as we are planning on putting over tarpaulin covering for the next couple of months up to February, which hopefully should kill off all the weeds and grass. Would the cuttings help with the ground as would it act as a kind of compost? Please any thoughts on what to do would be helpful, we could just dispose of it at the skip if that's going to be the best option.
You'll certainly kill some of the weeds and a litle grass by covering it, but mostly I dont think you'll actually solve the problem as the weeds main growing season is coming to a close. Top foiliage will die back under cover but the roots of perennnial weeds will remain intact ready to burst forth in spring.
You may still be able to use glyphosate to kill weeds, other will hopefully advise on that here.
I'm in the process of clearing my new plot too and strimmed it down, mowed it and piled that grass up into a heap...the start of my compost heap into which I'll start mixing some other things into over this next month.
I've also used glyphosate (Round up) on the now short grass, last application of two was about a fortnight ago and its all fairly dead now with just a splash of green here and there, I'll be starting to turn it over this week so that winter frosts can help break it down...whilst I am doing this I'll also remove any roots I come across. Then after adding some manure I'll cover it all with carpets.
I hope this part answers your question.
Steve...:)
I would pile them up and make a compost heap with the grass. The problem with that is that you will also have weeds in there and they will scatter their seeds ready for when the ground is beginning to wake up in the spring and they will grow in profusion. Little will happen as Steve has said now until the ground begins to warm up next spring.
Sounds like you have your work cut out to get rid of the barbed wire and old posts!
Good luck with it.
Old Bird
I would agree with composting too...but if you haven't had chance to make one up yet..you could also make best use out of it by digging it in into shallow trenches..
Perhaps you have all ready in mind where you are going to grow your potatoes next year..well they would benefit from the grass...
dig trench..spread some grass in..and cover with soil..problem sorted..worms will love it and soil will be better next spring.. ;)
If you do not have a compost bin you could do what my neighbours did. They dug out some clods of soil and piled it up and filled the middle with the plant material.
Perhaps it time to get a compost darlek, some areas you can get them from local authority on special offer.