Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Smallhold Farming and Rural Living => Livestock and Growing on a larger scale => Topic started by: rozalia on August 11, 2011, 17:48
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Following on from earlier post about making a veg patch out of grassed area, I have my veg patch in a corner of an unused field (only part of our land that gets full sun). Over 2 years I have cleared a 20x30ft area and it is very productive.
Need advice on how much of a no-go zone I need to create to keep my veggies away from the 5ft grasses and weeds growing in the field. OH has sprayed a 2 ft wide strip to control brambles and I've put down a 2/3 ft wide strip of cardboard. In the past we have tried to strim the grass but too dense and thick even for our industrial-type strimmer. I know I won't win the battle against wind blown seed but would like to halt the couch grass roots finding their way into my cultivated bit etc. Any one with experience of growing in a field?
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I find that couch grass roots will travel as far as they need to. Best to put vertical barriers down if you can.
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From experience, I would suggest also a 'fence' made out of 1m tall debris netting on some posts, which will stop a lot of the wind blown seeds from making it over to you and give good shelter too.
Cheap on ebay ;)
(As well as heavy duty plastic sheeting spade depth into the ground along your boundary to kep out the coach grass roots et al :) )
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Can you dig a trench round the perimeter?
Couch doesn't normally go much deeper than a spit (it can sometimes of course), so at least it just reaches the 'cliff face' and dies away.
I've worked this method all year, and it seems to have worked.
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If t'was me I'd probably fall down it :lol: :ohmy:
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Oh, I'm always doing that KC!
But a cliff face does work; believe me!
In fact, I'm digging another as we speak - all along the bottom, because there's enough couch there to fill a bucket every three ft...
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What about a goat(s) in the rest of the field ,theye'd love the 5 foot grass and weeds and would really scough the couch grass
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What about a goat(s) in the rest of the field ,theye'd love the 5 foot grass and weeds and would really scough the couch grass
Best idea yet!
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What about a goat(s) in the rest of the field ,theye'd love the 5 foot grass and weeds and would really scough the couch grass
Best idea yet!
What if the field belongs to someone else, as in our case, and the physical barrier would need to be on their side of the fence and we haven't got round to asking them if we can fix 4 inch gravel boards all along their side, as in our case. Just keep pulling the stuff. ::)
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What about a goat(s) in the rest of the field ,theye'd love the 5 foot grass and weeds and would really scough the couch grass
Best idea yet!
What if the field belongs to someone else, as in our case, and the physical barrier would need to be on their side of the fence and we haven't got round to asking them if we can fix 4 inch gravel boards all along their side, as in our case. Just keep pulling the stuff. ::)
Part of me wanted to say just lift the goat over every morning and evening..... but I didn't want to sound silly :lol: :lol:Could you fix gravel boards on your side?
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Well we could, but the stobs are our side, i.e. the Rylock is attached to their side to make a smooth surface for the animals. The trouble with fixing it to our side, would be the amount of wastage in making lots of short cuts, rather than x number of clean runs of 4.8 metre wood. We can't have clean 4.8 metre runs on our side because it would make lots of stupid little pockets for the grass to get into and this would be positively impossible or worse to get to, through our hedge. ::)
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Thanks for advice. We own the field and as much as my son would like a goat I'm trying to make my life easier but if we get any dry weather soon I'll get out with the pick axe and spade and get a trench dug.