[Eat your greens]

Hi all, I'm trying to clear some land to erect a polytunnel by early spring. The land I have is or should o say was covered in rushes, due to the intense heat for the past 40 days with no rain the rushes have all but died away, i strimmed them down to the base and they seem dead to me. Is this a good time to lay the heavy duty weed out mat, like will this kill them off altogether without the use of poison. People tell me they'll just grow through the weed out fabric, but the land is scotched. Is it that easy to get rid of them? Thanks.

[snowdrops]

Ive no experience of rushes, but I assume it must be quite a wet area for them to grow? I would consider putting a thick layer of cardboard over the whole area to exclude light, then as much well rotted manure or compost as you can,then cover with membrane. That stops most things.

[wapello]

Soft rush, the main weedy species, is widespread and forms tussocks that extend by means of the short creeping rhizomes from which new shoots and ultimately new plants arise. Undisturbed plants grow into clumps over 1 m tall but mowing or heavy trampling alters this to a uniform spread of shoots. It is native in marshes, ditches, bogs, wet meadows, damp woods and by water, mostly on acid soils. Soft rush is abundant throughout the British Isles and is ubiquitous in moist situations and regions of high humidity. It prefers an open situation but can grow in partial shade. At one time, the soft rush and the compact rush were treated as a single species.

Soft rush flowers from June to July in the south and July to August in the north. The flowers are wind or more rarely insect pollinated. Capsules contain an average of 82 seeds and a plant may produce 700,000 or more seeds. The seeds are not ready to germinate until the April after shedding. Light and moisture are required for germination. Initially, seedlings are susceptible to drying-out, shading and mechanical damage but once established they become more resistant. The rhizomes that develop form a dense horizontal mat 6 to 50 mm below the soil surface. Stout roots penetrate vertically downwards to 25 cm. Shoots commence vigorous growth in March.

Hard rush (J. inflexus L.) (Syn. wire rush, J. glaucus)

Hard rush, the other main weedy species, is native in marshes, dune slacks, wet meadows or by water on neutral or base rich soils. It is common through most of the British Isles. The hard rush is a tuft forming species with the shoots borne on an extensive rhizome system. It flowers from June to August. The average seed number per capsule is 67 and there may be over 200,000 seeds per plant. The seeds require light for germination. The shoots, if grazed, are said to cause poisoning in sheep and cattle. Cattle that acquire a taste for it may suffer blindness and death.

Good luck with it you have your work cut out,,,

Edit: Above quoted text is from: https://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/weeds/rushes
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[sunshineband]

I assume that you are aiming to cover the whole area on which your polytunnel will eventually sit, Eat your greens?

If you cover the area with weighted down landscape membrane, the rushes will not grow through it, and after about 12m or so, everything underneath it will be dead. My thought is that if rushes grow there, that area is likely, in normal weather conditions, to be a bit boggy, and still would be even under the membrane. Would this affect your tunnel at all?