Clearing scrubland

[rary]

I have a bit of land to clear, it was used for gazing so hasn't been been worked for over100 years I am looking for suggestions on how to clear it so far
I have raked it and filled a couple of brown bins with the rakings, I am not able to dig the ground, how could I clear it and be able to plant pumpkins out inMay/

[nick the grief]

rary How big is it ? is it a full sized lotty plot or bigger?

If its plot sized then I guess covering with something like weed supressant sheeting ( not the cheap stuff its next to useless) would work you could cover it with that and use a pastry cutter and a blow torch to melt some circles in it and plant thru the holes ... Old trick used for growing Dahlia cuttings

If you can get a load of well rotted manure you could spread a good layer of that on the ground first then cover it, that will give you a bit of something to the soil for the pumpkins.

If its larger then could you get a local farmer to deep plough it - not ideal but it will bury the weeds and then youcould spread the manure on it and just plant into the ground and hope the pumpkins smother the ground ( they usually do ...)

Give you something to think about anyway

ntg

[Snoop Puss]

I'm in a similar position, Rary. Except it's my veg patch that I let go to rack and ruin and did nothing with last year. I'm going to go the no-dig route. Not dig up the weeds but smother them to death. In my case, I've been given loads of hay, so I'm just going to pile hay on and then plant plug plants through it. This will be good for you too, especially if you can put in plants like pumpkins, squash, courgettes, those trombo things that I can't remember the full name of. Not so good for seeds because of the lack of light, but decent-sized seedlings and plug plants should do well, potatoes too.

I've tried using cardboard in the past, the traditional material used in no-dig systems. But it didn't work for me because the weather here is so dry and it didn't rot down. I found it very difficult water the plants satisfactorily. Where you are, cardboard might work a treat in that respect as it will rot relatively quickly in your environment. There are a couple of potential drawbacks for you too, though. If it gets very windy, the cardboard will blow about. Hay too, but it will be less damaging than a huge sheet of cardboard. Also, and this might affect you particularly, it provides a great home for snails and slugs to shelter under. On the other hand, they'll be concentrated underneath and relatively easy to collect during the daytime, not just at night.

One option for you might be seaweed, but you'd need an awful lot to stop the light getting through. Any significant amount of light and existing weeds will survive and weed seeds will germinate.

Do you have any ideas of your own? I'd be glad to hear them.

[Nicos]

Can you borrow any pigs Rary? Not joking…my daughter had some on a small plot of land and they turned it over, ate everything and manured it at the same time!

Just a slightly obscure idea…but Snoop will testify to what a wild boar can do, and pigs aren’t very different….

[rary]

I suddenly got all the photos I had posted so removed the second lot, unfortunately ntg there is no access for vehicles to the ground so any manure would have to be carried in manually, at present the area I am going to use will be about 15X15ft. I have constructed a barrier with felled tree branches to keep out deer, if it's successful I can enlarge the area to whatever I want, there's several acres to use but definitely won't be doing so, my own thoughts on clearing the ground is that I don't want to use herbicide weedkillers, so have startedcto rake as much scrub off as possible then cover with layers of cardboard, unlike Snoop there should be no problem with the covering being kept wet, there is also a wee burn creating one of the borders so again no problem there, I will dig some planting holes and fill with compost when ready to plant out after reading Snoops post I think I will cover the cardboard/paper with seaweed which would help control slugs and snails, I still have about four months to work on the plot so will keep passing on any work done

[Snoop Puss]

Brilliant, Rary. Sounds like a great plan. Not even sure you need to make a lot of effort raking off the scrub unless it's very woody. And if it's very woody, it's likely to be hard work to rake. Not sure it's worth the effort. Cover it up like everything else. It'll all break down eventually.

[Andraste]

Hi rary,

I've nothing of value to add to the good advice already given but wanted to wish you all the best with the new project

[rary]

Taking Snoops advice I decided to cover the ground with cardboard, unfortunately I had to stop as it started raining before I was finished, I still have a fair amount of cardboard and newspaper to put down, which hopefully will suppress all the weeds, I have several bags of leaves and old compost which I intend covering it with I will post some photos when finished each step

[Snoop Puss]

Thanks, rary. Me, I'm going to be piling on the hay next week.

Mind you, Nicos wasn't wrong about pigs. A couple of nights back, a boar has been digging up a bed where I had potatoes growing two years ago. Must still have been a few volunteers that I didn't notice last year. Anyway, that's one bed that doesn't need weeding. The fence needs fixing, mind...

[rary]

Unfortunately Snoop, as there is no way for a vehicle to access the area let alone get a hold of pigs that option is out of the question, I have also changed my mind about growing pumpkins in the space as think I would loose them to deer and rabbits, so now going to plant blackcurrant and gooseberry bushes in the space, I reckon that with growing them I wouldn't have the same problems of suppressing the weeds, that I would have growing any veg, after all I am looking for a fairly quick return as somehow I don't think have the time to spend four or five years clearing the ground properly too many other things still to do

[rary]

Planted the blackcurrant bushes this morning, thought I had better get them in before anymore rain or before the temperature takes a plunge again, while digging the planting holes there were a lot of vine weevil grubs in the ground so scattered those that I uncovered over the cardboard for the birds to feed on then as it's too cold for using nematodes I soaked the ground with a garlic solution, don't know if it will effect the blackcurrant and not 100% sure it will kill off the nematodes but is did look as if it worked last year when my lilies were attacked,anyway a lot cheaper than the nematodes so definitely worth a try when planting I decided against using any feed as the soil looked good and nothing grown in it for years apart from the weeds, which in turn has fed the soil as well, once planted I covered the ground around the bushes with a thick layer of newspaper I was gonna by to collect more branches but it was too cold as there was a constant strong wind blowing so now in the house to warm up
I,will now try loading some photos of work done and might get an other couple of photos once the rain stops I have also shown the access

[Andraste]

Thanks for posting the pics rary - great to see how you're getting on I love the water feature

[Snoop Puss]

Good luck with the currant bushes, rary. Might you add some raspberries? I reckon you can never have too many raspberries. Good to see the photos. If I were a beaver, I'd be thinking of moving in there.

[Bren In Pots]

Its looking good Rary, I agree with Snoop raspberries are always nice they're my favourite fruit out of those I grow.

[Andraste]

Yes, you can't call it a plot if it doesn't have at least 1 raspberry in it On that vein our tayberry and loganberry both got off to a flying start for a quick return on your planting.

It's also not really a plot if it doesn't have rhubarb in it (even if you don't like eating it, it seems a plotters' rule that you must have some). The nice big leaves block out a lot of the light from the ground so we get very few weeds around ours.