Advice capillary matting
mmu...@cableinet.co.uk
I want to use matting to cover my front garden to supress weeds but
capillary matting is very expensive.
Can anyone advise on a suitable alternative , I believe old carpet can
be used but I would be glad to hear of any simpler solutions.
regards,
Green fingers
Peter knight
I use:
'Plantex' (I believe) fabric - a brown fabric that is sold for
the purpose in garden shops, etc. This is quite expensive, so
I tend to use it only around plants that need it.
Mushroom Compost (or manure) much cheaper, keeps the weeds down,
but only lasts a season.
Various other mulches are available - bark, composted bark, commercial
compost, cocoa shell - I have never used these, but they will all
do the same job.
E&OE
Regards
Peter Knight
86$a...@siberia.demon.co.uk
Pk> Mushroom Compost (or manure) much cheaper, keeps the weeds down,
Pk> but only lasts a season.
Any organic mulch also has the advantage that as well as
suppressing weeds, it improves the structure and fertility
of your soil, something that capilliary matting can't do.
Clarke Brunt
In Article <333EE6...@cableinet.co.uk> mmu...@cableinet.co.uk writes:
>I want to use matting to cover my front garden to supress weeds but
>capillary matting is very expensive.
>Can anyone advise on a suitable alternative , I believe old carpet can
>be used but I would be glad to hear of any simpler solutions.
Is the stuff referred to as 'capillary matting' *ever* used to
suppress weeds? I though it was just intended for laying in trays on
greenhouse benching so that plants could take up water from it. If
you are only expected to buy enough for a greenhouse, then indeed
convering an entire garden might be expensive. Also, by the very
nature of its porosity, it would do nothing to keep soil moisture in.
Some people just use black plastic sheeting, planting though holes
made in it. I doubt that it looks very nice though, and I haven't
tried it myself. My first thoughts are that no water would be
able to get to the soil under it either, but on second thoughts,
you'd be preventing direct evaporation (though not transpiration
though the plants leaves), and I guess any rain falling would
find its way through the planting holes.
--
Clarke Brunt (cla...@brunt.demon.co.uk) http://www.brunt.demon.co.uk/
Cacti in Mexico, Cacti in flower, Frogspawn, etc.
Russell Johnson
In article <3340D4...@boat.bt.com>, Peter knight
<knig...@boat.bt.com> writes
>mmu...@cableinet.co.uk wrote:
>>
>> I want to use matting to cover my front garden to supress weeds but
>> capillary matting is very expensive.
>> Can anyone advise on a suitable alternative , I believe old carpet can
>> be used but I would be glad to hear of any simpler solutions.
Capillary matting is for a different purpose entirely.
For weed suppression for free I use spent hops from the local brewery. A
thick layer lasts for a couple of months, looks quite attractive and
smells good when fresh.
Surprisingly, it doesn't blow away.
Also, less attractively but at no cost, newspapers can be used or
shreddings from the office shredder.
--
Russell Johnson
r.jo...@hunthous.demon.co.uk
Sheffield 0114 268 2353
Rex Bradley
In article <i83BJEAD...@hunthous.demon.co.uk>, Russell Johnson
<R.Jo...@hunthous.demon.co.uk> writes
SNIP
>
>Also, less attractively but at no cost, newspapers can be used or
>shreddings from the office shredder.
Aha....this is of gret interest to me, we've just installed a shredder,
I WONDERED whether the output could be composted or whatever....the
paper that goes through is pretty fancy office paper, will that rot
down? Any thoughts and advice appreciated.......
--
Arby
Pete
on Sun, 30 Mar 1997,
Greenfingers wrote:
>I want to use matting to cover my front garden to supress weeds but
>capillary matting is very expensive.
>Can anyone advise on a suitable alternative , I believe old carpet can
>be used but I would be glad to hear of any simpler solutions.
>
It needs to be soaked so that it shapes itself to the ground, overlapped
so that no light gets through (important), and covered with a thickish
layer of cosmetic mulch if it is somewhere it needs to look pretty. (e.g
bark, straw etc.) You can plant through it by making a hole in it.
If you want to improve the soil at the same time (or even build up soil
where there isn't any) a thick layer of rotted manure on top of the
cardboard, before the bark/straw/whatever is put on will do the trick.
You can plant (larger plants) through this too.
This means that you could start with a weed infested patch, cover it
with this deep mulch and plant out any shrubs or robust perenniels all
in one session. Hey presto! Instant garden.
--
regards,
PeteB
Jarendel
I sue grass clippings . each time I mow , I scatter them thinly until I
have a nice build up
Jarendel
Chris
In article <19970415013...@ladder01.news.aol.com>,
jare...@aol.com says...
>
>I sue grass clippings . each time I mow , I scatter them thinly until I
>have a nice build up
>Jarendel
CMM