[bigben]

I have been looking after a friends allotment for him and have just heard that I am at last at the top of the list and getting my own. It is a jungle and will take up nearly all of my time. My plan is to concentrate on clearing at least half of it and getting stuff in but I want to try to make my friends plot lower maintenance. I have just had a big role of weed fabric delivered and was planning on using it to grow onions through (like quite a few of the older guys seem to do on my site). I wondered what else people found they could use this for to reduce the amount of weeding?

[DavidT]

The simple answer is, anything you like. It even works well for potatoes.

[chriscross1966]

Squashes and other cucurbits do well, spuds take some planning but do OK, sweetcorn..... what you want is big aggressively growing plants where you plant pot-started individuals rather than direct sowing.... those three will kill off most everything underneath the fabric leaving you to deal with the odd weed that finds the hole.....

Some others... Jerusalem artichokes, bush tomatoes, cabbages...

chrisc

[peanut]

depends on the quality of the fabric.  Many of my neighbours covered large areas of their plots with it, but the slightest of winds has seen length after length shred and transform into long black streamers flying 6" off the ground on the plot.  Other have used tarpaulin type groundsheets and cut holes, edged with duck tape to stop splitting.  This seems to have worked - I guess having the holes for the cabbage etc to grow gives it enough air through to stop it becoming to sweaty underneath

[bigben]

Thanks for the ideas - the fabric is 100g/ms and is woven so will hopefully be ok Peanut. I assume I will need to weight it down and bury the edges. Anyone know is it best to cut crosses or actual circular holes?

[DavidT]

Always crosses. That way you can tuck the fabric up against the plant stem.

[Salmo]

To cut holes that do not rip use a hot knife or soldering iron.