[leeky]

Fella next to me has made paths from carpet, but he has put black plastic under the carpet.

It turns out one of the runs he made covers some of my plot, I claimed half the path back (tucked the carpet under) and found smooth soil, not a weed in sight. However when I took the plot on there were remnants (scuse the pun) of carpet embedded in the middle, that was hell to pull out. Surprisingly heavy with all the soil and weeds bonded to and through it.

[Annie]

I`m probably doomed!When we moved in here there was a threadbare carpet in one room which we moved out into the wild bit of garden.It was a nice summer so occasionally we would sit on it under the apple trees(v.civilised).As we got to grips with the house and garden near the house we forgot about the carpet and after 2.5yrs when I claimed my first bit of veg.patch we only found the corners.So bearing in mind that we rotavated the year after we have had that carpet irreversibly woven into the veg patch.It did stop the weed for a while but as it rotted it merely blanched the dandelions .

[Lynne]

I'm with the no carpet brigade. When we had our plot we decided to dig rather than rotivate and now I am glad. There was so much buried carpet, metal, mesh, glass etc I think we would have broken a rotivator.

[johnkelly]

I'm thinking of puttin gblack plastic down to try and control the aundance of weeds in my allotment. About a third of the area is usable but the rest is very overgrown. Would you people recomend plastic - I was thinking of the damp proof membrane you can buy in b&q for about £25.

Thanks

John

[Lynne]

We use heavy duty membrane which we get from a local farm equipment supplier. If there is one near you it might be worth having a look, the one we use is less than half the price of B&Q and other 'normal' shops for just about everything. I got the membrane (10m by 3m) for £8.

[wellingtons]

... getting of my acres of backside and doing the weeding by hand!  And I've had some interesting feedback from fellow allotment holders (and Muntjac, but his is only in reference to number of acres my backside actually covers!).  I was laughed at, offered a rotivator and even offered a rotivator and a man to rotivate it free of charge, but this is now my third year and my plot is the least weedy around.  It takes me very little time each week throughout the season to keep it under control.  It was flippin' hard work in the beginning but I'm reaping the rewards now.

I do use carpet on my allotment though, but it's somewhat threadbare, elderly and made of wool and it sits on top my compost heaps!!