[Janeymiddlewife]

OK - went to see promised "good" plot. I suppose "good" depends on your definition :roll:
Good points - there don't appear to be any "nasties" other than 1 clump of something which I'll post later. The plot was dug over 18 months ago, 1 small section is black polythened, the rest is grass on top of carpet. Also as the previous incumbent has been "promoted" to the great allotment in the sky i definitiely won't be thrown off this one. I'm also next to the row rep who is more friendly than the curmudgeonly so & so I've previously dealt with. I've also managed to get a couple of blokes to move my compost bin
Bad points - the back 6 foot is brambles, not sure what sort of "grass" it is til i put a spade to it later today - really hope it's not couch grass, coming from a plot with established beds and fruit to nothing is a bit of a shock. I can't transplant any of my friends raspberries or strawbs because there's nowhere to put them yet - so might not have the fruit I was hoping for - and no asparagus either of course :cry:
Hey ho - back to digging (again)

[crowndale]

Hope its not couch too but can vouch that it can (and does) grow through carpet!  I put some carpet down in the spring and have just lifted it to find couch creeping in from the deges and growing through the carpet, its a very short step then to grow into the soil too!  But then have also found a load of annuals that grow ontop of the carpet and not into it (including some grass, not couch obviously) and non e of them have grown through.

[Trillium]

Couch is something we all have to deal with  so don't be offput by it too much; just one of those necessary evils it seems. And brambles can be tackled with some hard work as other members have proved and shown, so there's lots of promise to that lot it seems.

[cawdor2001]

Glyphosate is great on couch if your principles let you use it, best applied in the Spring once the couch is about 6" high, that way you will get most of it in the first shot.


Cawdor

[Janeymiddlewife]

Haven't found the carpet yet  Did an hour's digging this afternoon, managed to clear about 6 square foot - think i will probably put half under plastic as i won't have time to get it all done before the hard frosts.
Will have to ask guys next to me what they think of Glyphosate to be fair - don't want to upset them as plots are very close together.
saw the mother of all rats this afternoon - didn't quite manage to run it over :twisted:
Can I just ask what people use to trim their grass borders? The boundaries are very uneven so although a push mower would be cheaper than a petrol strimmer I'm not sure it would work on such an uneven surface.
Thanks

[paintedlady]

I bought a cheap battery operated strimmer and it does work but only a small section before the battery runs out (and I have 2 batteries) and ideally needs to be done every week otherwise it can't cope :roll:   Apart from the expense of a petrol one, unfortunately I find I don't have the strength to use one.  Sometimes I end up with the shears ...

[Janeymiddlewife]

  Apart from the expense of a petrol one, unfortunately I find I don't have the strength to use one.  Sometimes I end up with the shears ...

I was wondring bout that - I'm only 5'2 , not the fittest person around and i have had problems with my wrists in the past :cry:  - ideally I'd like to borrow a strimmer to see how i go before parting with any hard earned cash - a carpeted showroom doesn't quite give the same feeling as an allotment! - having said that I did manage a sander, but only in short bursts, removing artex from our downstairs loo

[richyrich7]

I just give my paths a good dose of sodium chlorate once a year, saves being time.  :oops:

[Janeymiddlewife]

I just give my paths a good dose of sodium chlorate once a year, saves being time.  :oops:

pardon my ignorance richyrich - what is it and how does it work? Is it a "bad" thing to do???

[PAH48]

Hi one and all, just to say  ditto  Richyrich7 last comment.
Go for it, sodium  chlorate, go for it.
Bye PAH still   'in

[paintedlady]

sodium chlorate is a strong herbicide and kills most plants off - soon to be taken off the shelves if the EU have anything to do with it.

[richyrich7]

I just give my paths a good dose of sodium chlorate once a year, saves being time.  :oops:

pardon my ignorance richyrich - what is it and how does it work? Is it a "bad" thing to do???

No just lazy, it's a total weedkiller kills more or less everything in the soil, you just have to be careful where you put it and not to walk on it while its wet then all over your plot   I'm not sure if it does but I think it kills the couch roots as they try to come through from all the unused plots either side of me.
It's one of those weedkillers that will be fazed out next year.

[Janeymiddlewife]

sodium chlorate is a strong herbicide and kills most plants off - soon to be taken off the shelves if the EU have anything to do with it.

Thanks paintedlady - however many of the neighbouring plots seem to have beautifully manicured grass boundary paths, like a mini lawn - I'm not sure killing them off would help - hence the initial query about maintaining them in such a beautiful state IYSWIM