Ground cover weed prevention

[southlondongardener]

At the end of my garden there is a bank of waste ground.
I am half clearing it and hope to put a couple of apple trees and soft fruit there.


At the moment it is covered with woody waste but in the summer it will give lots of weeds. What is the best way to solve this ? I thought that apart from where I plant a few raspberry canes I could just cover with newspapers which would have a bit of soil on top of them so they do not look hideous.
And for the raspberries just weed a lot ?
Any ideas ?

I might move my tayberries and japanese wineberries from the front garden and put them in the back but would they be unhappy with that ?

[Protea]

The newspaper and soil are a good idea but will eventually rot down, and also the soil will still get weeds growing as seeds blow in from elsewhere.

You could try a more permanent mulch using a permeable weed suppressant membrane (not plastic) and cover it with bark chippings or gravel. I guess it depends on how steep the bank is! The newspaper would also work with bark chippings but you would need to top them up every so often and replace the newspaper once i year i would imagine.

You could also just mulch the area thickly with straw.

You will need to weed around the raspberries periodically, a mulch of well rotted manure in the winter is a great way to feed the plants and also acts as a mulch to keep the weeds down.

Hope this helps!

[Hans Mum]

rasps should be ok, just mulch them well & keep on top of the weeds, would have though same for tayberries and japanese wineberries but as they are from the berry family same rules should apply, you can also think about rhubarb dependng how big a patch it is, if you cover the newspaper with pony poo or other compost the worms will work it into the ground for you over a period of time....

[Sue]

Hi SLG
I've planted fruit trees in what was once a weedy wilderness and although got as many of the wretches out as possible, still get some of them regrowing, bindweed being the worst. I put down cardboard and covered with a very thick mulch, this has kept most of it at bay and any wind born weed seeds that root in the mulch are much easier to dispose of growing in the very loose soil.
I shall be replacing this every year to keep on top of it. In the summer it really helps keep the moisture locked in the soil too.
The trouble with raspberries are that their roots are very shallow so difficult to really get deep rooted weeds out once the raspberries are planted.
Sue