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Before and after clearing one of the soft fruit beds.#GrowYourOwn #HomeGrown #NoDig #Allotment
@Broadfork what do you do with all the grass you take out?
@amberfirefly Later in the year I’ll cut grass and dry it for mulching the beds but this is all going on the compost heap. I’ve just taken the front half of the plot on and it’s quite overgrown. #Allotment #Gardening
@Broadfork @amberfirefly
Do you get problems with weed seeds in it when you use the compost? I've created a separate compost heap this year for all the grass and weeds. It's enormous! Really no idea where I'm going to put the resulting compost, as it will have loads of grass seed in it
@Cyclist Not really. I’ll need to do a little more hoeing with the compost from these over winter piles but it’ll mulch the beds nicely in autumn.
I use home made hot compost in the seedling mix but I only make that in the warmer weather. I have the material to build the pile in one go then and can attend to it regularly.
Every growing bed has a dormant seed bank within it that digging kindly returns to the surface. No dig/minimum till reduces that weed pressure drastically.
@Broadfork @Cyclist interesting to know you don't get much of a problem from seed - it's the regrowth from the grass in compost that I was wondering about, maybe because mainly ours is couch grass - given how much of it we have I've taken to either just covering it (card and manure, which usually has more couch grass in it!) or if I need to take some out just piling it up on an area I don't grow on that it 95% couch grass under a young apple tree.
@amberfirefly @Cyclist I always add couch grass roots to the compost and don’t have an issue later on.
I do have some small areas of my plot where couch grass is a pain, mainly from me letting an area get away from me. Weeding isn’t ever my favourite job!
If it’s not solved by weeding and hand pulling it out I will go back to basic no dig principles and cover with cardboard for weed suppression and a layer of compost on top to plant into.