Kitchen Garden Forum

I've started to make a new veg patch. I've weeded (oh! those beastly nettle roots! ) and rotovated to break it up.I've turned in some good farmyard manure and decided where my bean trench will be.
My question is - should I cover it with cardboard/membrane/ bark or similar until I'm ready to start planting?

Depends. If the original soil is heavy, I would leave it uncovered for the frost (which is no doubt still to come) to break it up. If the soil is already crumbly and dark, I would cover it with a TRANSPARENT cover like plastic so that any weed seeds on the surface germinate and you can hoe them off because, if the ground has been uncultivated for some time (nettles!), it's likely to be full of weed seeds.

That's a really helpful tip Monika --thank you!

How do you get rid of the weed seeds in that case btw? What do you recommend, Monika?

It you've rotavated any nettle root's in accidentally be prepared to have a whole new batch of them sprouting when the soil warms up! They're blighters to totally eliminate. As Monika suggests if the soil is heavy I'd leave it uncovered for the frost to break it down but if the manure has loosened it up, I'd leave it open. I,m in two minds about covering soil up because if we get plenty of early sunshine and your plot is in a sunny positio it will help warm up the soil a little earlier. This will of course encourage weeds to grow too but hoeing them down early will keep things under control

Good luck, hope you have a profits le growing season. Have you dug your bean trench yet? I dug mine late last autumn and filled with kitchen peelings and grass to compost down and oticed a few days ago that because of the relatively mild weather we,ve had all the stuff seems to have virtually rotted down already.

I tend to cover mine with black plastic not transparent but with the same principle I roll it back, (don't remove it), in early spring, then the weed seeds come up quickly so I then roll it back over them for a week or so to exclude light & kill them off, which is quick as they are tiny. Might just be my area & sandy soil but the black plastic seems to encourage Mr Mole to dig higher & he does a fine job of rotovation along with the worms. Then it is just a twizzle of the fork to loosen & level the soil for planting.

LynwoodTill, weed seeds can stay in the soil for many years, but when your cultivation brings them to the surface, they germinate and that's when you hoe them off.

The new patch is complete at last! It's been edged and mulched.
A bean trench has been dug and Nemaslug has been ordered.
There are seeds germinating in the potting shed,so I'm keeping everything crossed for success later in the year.

Well done Toptaff. You've obviously been very busy despite the mixed weather but sounds as if you're in pretty good shape for this year's growing season. Am sure you can,t wait to get planting out and seeing everything grow.

I would cover in cardboard ,when you plant your beans push a dibber through the cardboard and plant them ,no worry about weeds the cardboard will block any light and rot down by the time autumn is here

Wow sounds like you have been busy Toptaff! Just sit on those hands a wee bit as in Wild West Wales the weather is a bit fickle, but sounds like you are doing everything right re: the prep & greenhouse sowing. If weather doesn't play just pot on the wee guys into bigger pots a couple of times until safe to plant out.

Primrose wrote:It you've rotavated any nettle root's in accidentally be prepared to have a whole new batch of them sprouting when the soil warms up! They're blighters to totally eliminate.

No, I dug the patch over ,several times - before doing the rotavating. I have no doubt that I didn't get out every single piece but hopefully the good covering of mulch will make them easier to spot and pull out when they raise their heads.