Originally posted by RobintheBobin
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Weeelll.... I managed to get loads of cardboard from local shops etc, nice big pieces as well...
However, I needed LOADS of bricks to hold it all down with, as none of the card was large enough to cover a whole bed (obviously), so whilst there was all the muck and compost on the beds, there was a layer of cardboard and multiple bricks everywhere.
I found that the wind blew it all over the place, even after we'd put more bricks down. We are in a very windy location - north west coast (about 500 yrds from the beach), but it was a real pain, having to pick up and reposition the card after a windy night/day. I was finding that I was doing it at least 2 or 3 times a week when the weather was really bad. Added to that it was very rainy, so the card was disintegrating in my hands/when it blew around...
We're also very unfortunate to be full of nasty perennial weeds. We found that docks, bindweed, mares tail and couch grass (plus some creeping thing that I don't know the name of) all grew THROUGH the cardboard (that had managed to stay down) and we ended up doing as much weeding as we had been doing in the spring and summer.
This year, we have weedkilled, strimmed and burnt the weeds... covered with about 2 inches of straw/manure/compost and topped off with large sheets of black building plastic. Overkill? Maybe.... but I don't have the time or the daylight hours during the winter to do as much to the veg patch as I'd like!!
BTW - this is my opinion only, and lots of Grapes may get on very well with cardboard!!
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