I spent a while today crawling under the fruit bushes (red/white/blackcurrants
and gooseberries) and dragging out the weeds, which I swear weren't there a
week ago. Mostly sticky weed (my arms are all mottled red now, yuk) and a bit
of bindweed. Not had much stickyweed before, I think it may be due to Daniel
spreading the seeds last year. :-/

I figured there must be a better way to do this. Satisfying though it was.

What do people normally do to their fruit bushes to supress weeds? I figure
it has to be some kind of mulching, as weed blanket would stop any new shoots
coming up from the base. Although you may want to do that.

What kind of mulch would be effective?

On Sat, 08 Jun 2013 09:12:22 +0100, Chris Hogg wrote:

On 7 Jun 2013 23:15:44 GMT, wrote:


I spent a while today crawling under the fruit bushes
(red/white/blackcurrants and gooseberries) and dragging out the weeds,
which I swear weren't there a week ago. Mostly sticky weed (my arms are
all mottled red now, yuk) and a bit of bindweed. Not had much
stickyweed before, I think it may be due to Daniel spreading the seeds
last year. :-/

What kind of mulch would be effective?

Grass cuttings.

Wood chips here.

There is a _huge_ amount of sticky weed every where this year, I've never
seen so much. Not sure why that might be.

How hum, back to the lawn mower.

-E



--
Gardening in Lower Normandy

On Saturday, June 8, 2013 12:15:44 AM UTC+1, wrote:

I spent a while today crawling under the fruit bushes (red/white/blackcurrants
and gooseberries) and dragging out the weeds, which I swear weren't there a
week ago. Mostly sticky weed (my arms are all mottled red now, yuk) and a bit
of bindweed. Not had much stickyweed before, I think it may be due to Daniel
spreading the seeds last year. :-/
I figured there must be a better way to do this. Satisfying though it was.
What do people normally do to their fruit bushes to supress weeds? I figure
it has to be some kind of mulching, as weed blanket would stop any new shoots
coming up from the base. Although you may want to do that.
What kind of mulch would be effective?

Dumping assorted prunings there works pretty well, feeds them too.


NT

Similar sort of thing to us, we make plenty of compost and spread that
everywhere as a mulch. Any weed is easy to how and disturb. We only have
small gardens and take in prunings etc from our neighbour, pass everything
through the shredder and compost it. We have 3 compost bins, just about to
make another and have sacks of ready use compost lined up.

Our gardens are a picture now and I don't know if the 'open garden' scheme
is going to be organised, but now is the time to see them.

Mike

wrote in message
...

On Saturday, June 8, 2013 12:15:44 AM UTC+1,
wrote:

I spent a while today crawling under the fruit bushes
(red/white/blackcurrants
and gooseberries) and dragging out the weeds, which I swear weren't there
a
week ago. Mostly sticky weed (my arms are all mottled red now, yuk) and a
bit
of bindweed. Not had much stickyweed before, I think it may be due to
Daniel
spreading the seeds last year. :-/
I figured there must be a better way to do this. Satisfying though it
was.
What do people normally do to their fruit bushes to supress weeds? I
figure
it has to be some kind of mulching, as weed blanket would stop any new
shoots
coming up from the base. Although you may want to do that.
What kind of mulch would be effective?

Dumping assorted prunings there works pretty well, feeds them too.


NT

wrote:
Dumping assorted prunings there works pretty well, feeds them too.

Last year's prunings have all grown into surprisingly healthy new plants. ;-)

What kind of prunings are you using?

Emery Davis wrote in
:


There is a _huge_ amount of sticky weed every where this year, I've
never seen so much. Not sure why that might be.

How hum, back to the lawn mower.

-E




Here too. It must be it's year to thrive.

Baz

On Saturday, June 8, 2013 11:43:46 PM UTC+1, wrote:
wrote:

Dumping assorted prunings there works pretty well, feeds them too.

Last year's prunings have all grown into surprisingly healthy new plants. ;-)

What kind of prunings are you using?

Anything soft. Mainly ivy, passionfruit, borage, grass, potato, tomato, a few other things, whatever's up for disposal. I figure the mulch is deep enough that the ones that could get a grip on the soil get no light, and the ones with light get no soil/water. So far so good.

I can only give away a small fraction of the trimmings as cuttings.


NT