[londongardener]

At the end of my garden there is a bank of waste ground.
I am half clearing it and hope to put a couple of apple trees and soft fruit there.


At the moment it is covered with woody waste but in the summer it will give lots of weeds.  What is the best way to solve this ?  I thought that apart from where I plant a few raspberry canes I could just cover with newspapers.
And for the raspberries just weed a lot ?
Any ideas ?

I might move my tayberries and japanese wineberries from the front garden and put them in the back but would they be unhappy with that ?

[Ruth Cross]

1. Easiest way would be to put some weedkiller on it...but depends on how soon you want to put the fruit trees in. Check to see how long the killer stays active (6 to 8 weeks normally)

2. Or remove all the weeds by hand as they appear

3. or totally cover the ground with weed suppressant membrane, although this will take ages (months and months) to totally kill 99% of the weeds off.

4. or cover the ground with membrane as above and make hole in it and plant your fruits through the hole. Cover membrane with wood chippings

I would go for option 4 as no nasty herbicides :evil: and you can grow stuff straight away.

[londongardener]

1. Easiest way would be to put some weedkiller on it...but depends on how soon you want to put the fruit trees in. Check to see how long the killer stays active (6 to 8 weeks normally)

2. Or remove all the weeds by hand as they appear

3. or totally cover the ground with weed suppressant membrane, although this will take ages (months and months) to totally kill 99% of the weeds off.

4. or cover the ground with membrane as above and make hole in it and plant your fruits through the hole. Cover membrane with wood chippings

I would go for option 4 as no nasty herbicides :evil: and you can grow stuff straight away.

By membrane you mean old newspapers ?
I was going to cover it with soil/compost/manure why do you think I should use wood chippings ?

[Aidy]

I would use the thicker plastic membrane and suggestion 4, the membrane can be purchased at yur local garden centre.