It seems that no sooner have we planted up all our allotment beds than we start to clear them. The period of time during which the plot looks its best is short-lived.
We may not have enjoyed the weather during July but the weeds certainly have. We spent much of last week when we were not harvesting, clearing weeds. Several barrow loads were popped on the compost heap. We have separate bays in our compost area. One part is where we compost weeds and another for more desirable composting material. Guess which heap is the larger! The weedy compost is usually left for longer before adding it to the beds, Many advocate not composting weeds, but that would leave us with the problem of what to do with the vast amount of weed growth and also we reckon that weeds will continue to appear regardless of whether or not we spread weed generated compost. On an allotment site, there are plenty of weed seeds travelling from other plots.
To try and control the weed growth, once beds have been cleared and dug over, they will be covered with weed control fabric. This will be removed over winter when weed growth has more or less stopped and the beds will be recovered once the weeds start to reappear. We have found that leaving the fabric on overwinter can adversely affect our soil.
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