To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] cardboard and assorted weed barriers
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2009 10:52:47 -0800 (PST)
I live in a very wet area too. The water table is only about three feet down in most areas. If you put a good layer of compost (4-6 inches) under the cardboard, you shouldn't have any problems with the roots breathing. Once the cardboard is saturated, the earthworms come up through it into the top mulch layer. This system could help your soil immensely. I have also found that yearly applications of gypsum help to soften clay soils over time, until you have deep rich soil.
From: Lori Rizzo <larizzo@charter.net> To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2009 9:21:56 PM Subject: Re: [NAFEX] cardboard and assorted weed barriers
I have a question - I live in a flood plain, clay soil - i.e., poor drainage. Will using the cardboard cause a problem with water retention - fungi, etc.? Last year I mulched with straw, and didn't have a problem, though it was a dry year for us. I did buy some landscape fabric for this year to try out. East TN - zone 7.
Lori
Lori Rizzo, RN BSN MBA Health Care Quality Improvement Pet Training & Behavior Improvement! Maryville, TN larizzo@charter.net
Nice heads-up re carpet & winter, Alan. I've seen synthetic carpets used as pathes or mulches and they ALWAYS make a mess-- hard to remove if/when you want-- and always looks awful.
For newspapers, I've found 8-10 sheet layers are needed to slow down rhizomatous grasses, and larger areas than you intend to open up if you want to kill the grass. I aim for 50% overlap of 4-5 layer pieces. If you want to till the area in autumn, use no thicker than 6 layers.
Some mulch, most any kind, is needed to hold down the newspapers. Also to hide it from woodchucks which want it for nesting material.
________________________________ > Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:14:26
-0500 > From: alandhaigh@gmail.com > To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org > Subject: [NAFEX] cardboard and assorted weed barriers > > I've always been a bit squeemish about herbicides and so I've used all manner of weed barriers to establish the fruit trees I install and to protect my garden. I've used cardboard for years as have many gardeners as well as newspaper, and carpet. Sometimes I use landscape fabric. Pretty much whatever I have around- I never let newspaper or cardboard leave my property, unless it's to mulch some trees I'm installing. I'd be a bit reluctant to use cardboard for raspberries for fear it would deter emerging plants so I use the flimsier newspaper for that. If there is any kind of drainage issue I use very porous
landscape fabric- don't want to interfere with the transfer of oxygen for carbondioxide. > > Old wool rugs or carpet works great, as long as you pull it away during the winter- rodents love it. > > _________________________________________________________________ Windows LiveT: E-mail. Chat. Share. Get more ways to connect. http://windowslive.com/explore?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_t2_allup_explore_022009 _______________________________________________ nafex mailing list nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
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