Cardboard around raspberry canes.

Hello everyone,

Im new here and new to gardening. I have a half acre plot of land that I am attempting to establish a garden on. It was a wasteland which I have had cleared with a JCB. Currently I have one raised bed, a small orchard and a raspberry trellis.

I work at sea so keeping weeds down when I'm away will be problematic. I have been reading about weed suppression by using cardboard. Would this be a good idea around the raspberry canes? Does anyone have experience of using this technique?

 

Ellooo @RoryG and welcome to Gardeners corner..Myself I give my raspberries a good 4" mulch of well rotted manure that seems to keep the weeds at bay.

 

Thanks for the welcome and the reply. I'm interested in using cardboard because I have access to a free source of cardboard! I've also planted a massive amount of canes! A free way of keeping the weeds down would be great. I'm just not sure if its a good idea. Would enough water get through the cardboard?

 

Hiya and welcome Rory
I used a lot of cardboard in a friend’s large garden a few years ago. It was a mutual decision and an obvious one too. She had a garage stacked with cardboard and newspapers and a very large..almost 6 acre..garden.
I cleared areas of the land of perennial weeds and laid cardboard down to maintain a weed free area whilst not in use. Gradually, this area was cultivated. Water got through ...it softened quite quickly and actually looked “earthy”
No downside and very effective

 

Hi Verdun, thanks for that, good news, I think I'll go for it, a Scotsman getting to save money is a happy Scotsman.

 

One thing I would add is don't let it dry out if possible.

 

Thats not going to be a problem in Scotland.

I also have a lot of old agricultural plastic sheets. Do you think I could use this as weed suppressant? How long would it take to kill the weeds under it?

 

I think you'll be surprised Rory we seem to be getting it much dryer in these parts these days in the 'north east' even though I'm not that far north..
I'd go for the plastic sheets seen as you've got them you've nowt to loose.

 

Well that's very true, last year we were close to a drought during the heatwave.

I just wondered if the plastic would be good for the soil, there no water getting through, maybe a couple of holes in it would be a good idea.

 

Not keen at all on plastic RoryG. It adds nothing to the soil and prevents air and nutrition to it. Cardboard, dry or not, will eventually rot down whilst preventing weeds at the same time
Just because you have plastic it doesn’t mean you should use it

 

I was on a course at a venue where they were into organics, permaculture, etc., and they'd 'mulched' around their soft fruit bushes with cardboard. It didn't look right to me, as I'd only found it successful if applying a heavy layer of mulch on top.

What I found on having a quick insoection was that they'd laid it over weeds growing on uneven ground around the bushes, leaving an air gap under the uneven, dry cardboard, so light rainfall evaporated from the cardboard, and heavy rain was shed to the sides. Under the cardboard were 1,000s of woodlice.

Sadly, in another area, they'd laid a vast amount of Mypex over ploughed ground on an exposed hillside, again (because the membrane wasn't in contact with the ground, plus due to the steep slope) rain was shed away from crops planted through it. Plus plants were buried by the membrane suspended above them.

 

I see, what about using the plastic as weed suppression on an area I would look to use in the future, maybe in a couple of years?

 

I don’t like any inorganic method of mulching.
Not keen either on the ubiquitous weed suppressing membranes for the same reason....viz., soil is deprived of life and air.