Potager: membrane

Hose, showing Vincent where to dig

We had a chap come and help us bury a weed-root barrier so that we could stop travelling nasties like bindweed and couch grass from re-infesting the potager.  I had read that 40-50cm damp-proof course would work perfectly well, so I bought some 60cm thick black plastic [couldn't find 40cm or 50cm, but the more the merrier, eh?] off the internet.

Vincent, digging the hole & David lining the trench

We arranged for Vincent to come and dig out a trench while we were at the house for a weekend in March.  We thought that would probably take ages, but it was so fast that he had it filled in and levelled within a couple of hours.

60cm damp-proof course to block weed roots

I dread to think how long that would have taken David and I to do, but I know it would have been back-breaking work (and would probably have become soul-destroying before we would have got it finished).

Vincent levelling off the earth after filling in the trench

It's already seeming to work; we haven't had the run of grass that I was tracking for yards back to the field during last year's weeding marathon, so fingers crossed that it works as we hope.

Bye-bye digger!

We are having to spray glyphosate on the bindweed as the ground is so heavy that trying to dig it out just causes the roots to break, and voilà, new plants are formed!

[Anyone else remember the skeletons that sprang from dragon's (I think) teeth in Sinbad?]

"After"

I'm not delighted using chemicals, but this way we should have a useable garden area in months rather than years!  So needs must, and all that.

David weeding/spraying bindweed

The bit along the wall will hopefully be the home for fruit trees, and the part next to the house should be OK for vegetables, so I'm desperately hoping that next summer's photographs look markedly different!