A challenge to assumptions on old carpet as a weed control.

[Carole B.]

Don't get me started on two of my pet hates,Johnboy,'Journalistic Gardeners'(present company excepted Mr P.H.)and 'Controlling Official Bodies'.
I think I'm turning into one of those Grumpy Old Women off the telly!

[Carrie]

When I took on my plot there was stacks of blue polythene sheeting in the falling-down shed on my plot. Exposure to the sun, presumably, in the previous 2 years caused the sheeting to become very brittle so that as we moved it across the plot to get rid of it it disintegrated into small pieces that took ages to pick up.
Does a similar thing happen to HD polythene?

[Guest]

I have pieces of carpet cut to the exact size of my raised beds. Clear the bed in autumn, slap on a layer of mulch, cover with carpet and a few bricks and that`s it till April. Dead easy. the rest of the time it sits rolled up in an old coldframe. I`ve been using the current pieces for three years now and they`re still going strong. I think it`s a good and reasonable way to use carpet. I think the worst contaminents in the carper probably come fom my babies being sick or having potty training accidents on it. I`m not going to stop using it till someone demonstrates to me it`s a health hazard.

On the other hand, I do remember having to dig out a large piece of rotting rubber backed carpet from my allotment when I first took it over...it was about the size of a decent sitting room, flaking rubber everywhere and was a nightmare to cut up and dispose of. Ugghh...and I see this happening all the time when newbies take over plots. Our allotment committee is considering banning carpets for just this reason, and I`m not happy about it. Carpets are very useful used correctly and a total hazard if not...but you can say that for a lot of allotment practices, no?

Incidentally, the ideal sort of carpet to use for paths is carpet tiles. I got lucky when the local bowling club were recarpeting and inherited about 300 carpet tiles. Very easy to handle and turn, don`t degrade and the perfect width for paths. I built my second batch of ten raised beds at the exact spacing to use the tiles as path.You get a few weeds in the cracks, but when you turn them at the start of the year you just shuffle them down a few inches.

[Johnboy]

Hi Carrie,
The HD Polythene must be BLACK as the blue membranes are not anti-ultra violet treated and that is why they disinegrate. My Polythene has been down now for years with no sign of deterioration.

[Johnboy]

Dear Guest,
Used sensibly there are no real evils to carpet but it is as always the abuse of something that is so wrong. Personally I do not use it but as you and Peter have explained used properly then it achieves its aim.
I read a report in one of the magazines that some Council owned sites have already forbidden the use of carpet for the very reason you quote.
It really is the irresponsble actions of some of Carole's favourite people that and the backing given by the SA that are responsble for the whole dilema.
I will be sticking to my Black HD Polythene but it is most definitely a case of each to their own.

[idigyourgarden]

http://www.greenpeace.to/publications_pdf/carpet.PDF

yikes.

Are there any toxic issues with HDPE? No seriously.

Surely if they were toxic we couldn't have them in our homes?

Don't you believe it!! As Peter said paint is terrible stuff. Turpentine although natural is lethal stuff! And if you build a new house with steel beams or wooden ceilings take a look at the fire retardant paint they MAKE you use.

Going off the subject altogether here, but as an example of how some people don't give a $hit. If you have children you might want to question some of the chemicals they use in D&T. I'm specifically talking about DCM dichloromethane. AKA paint stripper aka lice killer on salmon farms. Its carcenogenic in Canada but in UK schools its fine as long as they don't drink it.

Oh and on the subject of people picking up a snippet of info and running (away) with it this is my favourite

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 071640.htm

[Jenny Green]

Yes, that's certainly an interesting study and provides much food for thought, particularly when recarpeting your home. However, I noticed that the study was done on new carpets, whereas carpets used for weed suppression are usually old and no doubt the volumes of chemicals present would be reduced if not eradicated. Then you have to consider how much of them would leach into the soil. If they leach out easily they would probably have leached out in the lifetime of the carpet anyway. And how much would be taken up by plants?
Personally speaking, I haven't read anything that will stop me using old carpet sensibly. I know the most I have to fear from the ancient ones we've removed from our house is the reek of old dog pee on them (from the previous owners I hasten to add!)

[peter]

What you find if you look up carpets on google is a wealth of American Carpet Cleaning Firms, who are trying to terrify people into steam cleaning their carpets.

Such nonsense as (paraphrased) "all sorts of contaminants in the air outdoors get on your clothes and end up in your carpet", some people get quite hysterical about carpet used on allotments on that basis. This whole hysteria fails to follow the logic of the argument, which would have us wearing NBC suits outdoors and never touching a single vegetable cos it was exposed to the outside air!

The pet hate I have at the moment on unneeded chemicals in the home is these automatic air fresheners, the advert has a silly little kid counting the "puffs", surely a little more effort with the vacuum cleaner, and washing machine, plus some fresh flowers does the trick with more style.

[Carole B.]

I agree Peter,I did a small post a few days ago saying how great my dehydrator machine is,I put in some fruit to dry and the whole house smells of fresh strawberries or I open the windows.Beats those puffing chemicals.