Is it really necessary....??

[di]

I've spent the last week digging over an area,previously home to nowt but couch grass,ready for a bed of various fruit bushes.
Now normally I would rid an area of every last bit of grass root that I can....but being wet & claggy this has been a helpless task.I've also always been led to believe that when preparing a permanent fruit bed you should ensure the ground is totally clear of all perrennial weeds.
Now,we're rather desperate to get the fruit bushes moved in so we can put trees where the bushes were(are),but the bed is by no stretch of the imagination clean....does it really matter?
I intend to give the area a very liberal sprinkling of wood ash & come spring will give the bushes a good mulching with either compost or newspaper/grass clippings....surely this will keep the dreaded grass at bay??....if not will my fruit really suffer so bad??

[Two_Sheds]

If you don't get all the roots out, you'll have couch grass growing up through your fruit bushes, and you'll never get it out then. One or two bits is manageable, but not if it is throughout your patch.

Couch will pierce and grow through carpet, so it will just laugh at a compost mulch

If I were you, I'd put your fruit into pots or just heel them in for now, then get busy clearing the ground as soon as you can.

[snuffer]

Would have to echo Two Sheds' advice. If you really have to move the fruit bushes, put them into temporary containers until you can clear the area of couch grass. It will pay dividends in the long run.

[di]

Cheers both....you've echoed the little voice in my head that I've so desperately been trying to ignore!!
I managed to get all the big bits out first time round...but you know how it is when a few stubborn tiny bits refuse to budge from the clods....& you just know that although they're little now...that's not the way they'll stay!!
Thanks!Di

[Two_Sheds]

Di, I don't know what you've done so far, but get something covering the ground now. The lack of light will seriously weaken the roots, making them much easier to dig out when you get round to it.

I covered a really badly infested patch with an old fence panel, and 6 months later there was barely a shred of root left, and the soil was lovely and crumbly.

[Flummery]

I've been digging out a couch infested border for 2 years, Spring, Summer , Autumn. I'm winning - but only just! It will go through anything but concrete - which won't do your fruit bushes any good!

[di]

It's got to be the one weed that is capable of almost bringing me to tears!!The bit I dug had spent at least a year covered in old tin & for some reason I thought it'd be the easiest bit to start on...how wrong could I have been?
Having lost almost an entire crop of tatties a few years ago to the stuff I am usually really meticulous about getting it all out,just got into my head that maybe the fruit bushes wouldn't mind...but thinking about it....weeding between gooseberry bushes is none too appealing!
As we know it's only temporary,we can probably plant the trees without moving the bushes yet as they're only tiny & just as soon as this blasted weather lets up can get back to cleaning the new bed....in the meantime I shall take your advice & cover it over.
The one consolation I suppose is that it probably accounts for at least a tenth of the new plot...so once done Only 9 rods to go!!!

[Flummery]

Will the chooks scrat it up? Maybe a movable pen for them while you're there?

[di]

The plan so far(for the other 9 rods!!)...is once Andi's moved our fence across we'll section them off a little path to the new plot & give them access to sections of it at a time(whilst we're there)& let them get to work on at least clearing the surface.The bit I've already done was 1/2 covered in tin(so had no turf)...the other 1/2 I sliced up the turf & popped in their run....you wouldn't believe how long that didn't last!....not sure if they eat the roots?