A comment from CJ after my post on using weed control fabric asked how we kept the fabric in place. As a reply in the comments would be far too long I promised a post about this - so here goes.
We really started using weed control fabric under our apple hedge and redcurrants as the grass grew very long here. Wasps also managed to build nests in underground holes under the redcurrants, one of which I managed to stand on when picking. The wasps reacted badly to the intrusion. Not good when you are trapped under netting and desperate not to drop the punnet of redcurrants which had taken so long to pick whilst angry wasps attack your foot. (Sorry I digress).
Anyway in these instances the fabric was just covered with a thick mulch of bark chippings which are deposited on the site by the council parks department. The edges were held in place using 'prunings' from a coppiced hazel bush.
It was after this worked so well at keeping these areas tidy that we decide to experiment. At first our methods of keeping the fabric in place were fairly primitive and involved large pieces of wood and stones.
One problem was that we hadn't enough material to carry on doing this and also the wood and stones provide great hiding places for creatures that love to feast on newly planted vegetables.
Where there are only cross slits cut into the fabric we found that the fabric really only needs holding down around the edges and so we decided to bury the edges under either soil or a mulch.
The downside is that weeds tend to still grow around the edges of the bed but these are mainly young annuals growing in the soil on top of the fabric and are easily removed.
The courgettes were given an additional top mulch of manure which along with the black material we hoped would warm up the soil too.
The courgettes loved it and when the fabric is taken off after harvesting the manure will be incorporated into the soil.
The fabric into which slits are cut is a bit trickier. For the parsnips and carrots we held the fabric down using strips of plastic. This only needed to be a temporary arrangement as once the tops grew they would keep the fabric in place.
The onions posed a different problem but we had bought some pegs with one lot of fabric and we used these to hold down the edges of the 'trenches'. In the photo below they are the black squares on plastic. They are supposed to pierce the fabric but we used them along the edges. This worked well enough but we needed too many and it would prove a very expensive method.
So for the second lot of onions I improvised and constructed a sort of grid using bamboo canes held down under strips of wood.
This worked too but I felt I needed too many canes between the plants and they could interfere with plant growth.
For other crops such as peas which were also planted in a 'trench' we mulch the fabric to keep it in place - the idea was that this would also retain moisture.
The peas seemed to thrive in these conditions and we have far better plants than we have had for a while.
For 'trench set-ups' I now have a new idea to try. I have placed long canes on the strips of control fabric and held these in place using 'L ' shaped pieces of wire. The wire pushes into the soil with the bottom of the 'L' fitting over the top of the cane like this.
I've just planted out some flowers, sweet Williams, sweet rocket, wallflowers and dog daisies using this system.
I'm not sure how well these pieces of wire will hold the canes in place so we bought some tent pegs with rounded ends that slot over the canes more securely.
I planted out the rest of the flower plantlets using this system
I watered the 'trenches' first and then used a dibber to plant the young plants.
When we can acquire the autumn onion sets and garlic bulbs we will use the tent pegs to secure the fabric around them. The main problem is that the canes are not perfectly straight but so far I am happy with how this is working. Once the plants grow they also help secure the fabric.
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