<h4>You're browser does not support iFrames - here is an exerpt of the content</h4> <a href="http://the-gardener.blog.co.uk/2009/11/24/pests-vegetable-and-animal-7449776/">Click here to read the article in full</a> <p>It is not a new idea of course, the covering of ground with plastic to prevent weeds. I have not used it because if I am here then weeding is part of growing. Removing weeds cultivates the sol and lets the air in, the weeds removed are material for the compost heap. I even let them grow to a size at which they still present no competition for the crop then crop the weeds as extra bulk.</p> <p>This year I tried a strip of heavy DPC material laid across the plot as weed suppression. I sowed Spinach along one edge and along the other Beetroot, my ground produces weeds almost like a sowing of Mustard and Cress, only a fool would 'sow and forget'. Yet that is what I did, I am developing methods that allow me to sow and go (off to the sun). The Spinach and Beetroot germinated and have cropped well without any weeding at all.</p> <p>Here they are now.</p> <p><img src="http://i34.tinypic.com/2e1drmr.jpg" alt="" title=""></p> <p>On one side side of the two sowings were establish well weeded rows of other crops so the weed problems from there were minimal, on the side I laid my access planks which I walk on in a pseudo Deep Bed system.</p> <p>The other pests (animal) are easing up now, I felt guilty when I caught my first Field Mouse, however you cant have the number that were establish around the house and garden here. When you get to No.66, this little chap, that is an infestation.</p> <p><img src="http://i33.tinypic.com/208fmn7.jpg" alt="" title=""></p> <p> <small> <a href="http://the-gardener.blog.co.uk/2009/11/24/pests-vegetable-and-animal-7449776/#comments">Comments</a> </small> </p>
