Weed Membrane + Wood Chip??

I'm going to plant up my new herbaceous border shortly, and I can't afford to let it get into a mess like the Shrubbery did last year

So I want to lay weed suppressing membrane. Three questions:

1) any recommended suppliers? I have about 300 square metres to cover.

2) Can I cover the membrane with wood chip?

3) I need between 3.5M and 4.5M width, do I buy 2M and do two strips, or 5M and possibly trim?

My thoughts are:

1) Best price I've found is AllPlas at about £0.40-£0.45 / sq.m for 105 gsm

2) I have a stack of branches from the Leylandii hedge that we have grubbed out, and the Poplars we felled, and I'm planning to get a big chipper in to turn them into mince-meat! Can I put that chip on the weed membrane to cover it? (I read that although the membrane is UV Resistant it needs some covering to prolong its life. Presumably this is usually Bark chips, but I don't want to have to buy anything in additional to the membrane, if possible)

3) I figure that laying two 2M strips side-by-side and overlapping / joining / weighing-down is going to be a pain compared to getting a single 5M strip - although I may waste some of the 5M width as the bed is 4-5 yards wide.

(Actually, at the back of one bed is a 1-year-old yew hedge which is desperate for mulching to keep the weeds down, one option would be to incorporate that in this 5M wide strip, the other side backs on to some recently trans-planted large / mature shrubs, so I reckon I can fiddle the leftover in between those and save some work there to.

However, I would only need 100M roll of the 5M wide, and that works out at £0.50 / sq.m, plus I would be buying 100 M whereas I only need 70M - I'm sure I can find a use for the rest though.

 

My goodness, just looked at your blog, and you have a little project there, no wonder you don't want to get involved with weeding!
Personally, I don't like the use of a membrane, ( I can hear loads of you all now shouting at your pc's!), but they do suppress the weeds to some extent, but I always find that if you have a problem with bindweed for example it enjoys 'running' underneath the membrane, and poking out at any opportunity, potentially making the weeding problem worse than intended.

I would save money an instead of purchasing and installing a membrane, and instead opt for a quality bark mulch, one that has been treated rather than a home made one, which could lead to saplings growing. I would also apply the mulch in a thick layer, as this will aid the soil condition when it comes to digging it in over the coming years.

If you have storage available within your garden I would perhaps suggest the cheapest way of buying bark is by the lorry load, but if you do store it, make sure you cover it, so that seeds blowing in the wind don't contaminate it!

Hope this helps!

 

I'm not that keen on membrane either. The plot was fallowed all last year, and sprayed several times with Roundup, so I'm not too worried about bindweed etc., but I do like your bark-mulch idea. Much easier to plant through - scrap away as far as I need to make a massive planting hole, if necessary - harder to do that with membrane.

So how much is bulk bark mulch then??

 

OK, to answer my own question. Looks like about £70 per cubic-metre bag. Applied 10cm thick I make that cubic bag covering 10 square metres = £7 / sq.m :( That aint going to wokr on my budget - unless I can put the chippings I'm going to make down direct (seem unlikely as I am sure I've read that's a no-no), or some other rouse?

 

I have contacts in the Herts/Essex area of England, and also West Yorks, but try the old faithful, and google, or ask at a local nursery/garden centre, and say its for a large quantity, they may get you a better price than if you were going as a member of the public asking a trade supplier.

Its a few years since I bought a large amount of bark, but make sure that its treated, which prevents any of the chippings regrowing.

Hope that helps.

 

Kristen - thats a big area you have.

Do you have a style of planting in mind. Whilst I use weed supressent fabric under gravel and it would work in a shrubbery, my feeling is that it would be difficult to use in a herbaceous border. I would be inclined to go for a dense cover of perennials in large blocks - perhape Piet Oudorf style, and let the density take care of the weeds. I have close packed perennials in my garden and have little problem with weeds.

I think Leylandii branches might be too acid to use as a mulch. It is said that Leylandii kills things close to it.

 

Kristen, Forget the membrane and just lay a thick 3" layer of bark. By all means use the chipped leylandi and if needs be buy some more of it in bulk in the form of a Lorry load. Bark applied thickly will suppress weeds perfectly successfully, membrane is IMO a gimmick.

The problem with membrane is it stops the bark from rotting into the soil, instead it holds the bark and any detritus that builds thus you get weeds growing above the membrane in the bark.

The other issue is that over time the bark moves and you get crappy membrane showing through, also the membrane provides a haven for slugs and a surface for bindweed to grow under.

 

Thanks Pro. My problem with bark is simply cost.

The membrane is intended to be a short term deal, avoiding the time needed for weeding for a couple of years, let the plants get established; we proved that we didn't have time to weed the shrubbery properly last year, and this is at least as large an area.

I'm not too bothered if it looks "industrial", in a couple of year the plants will be bigger and better able to suppress the weeds, and lots of weed seeds (and any pernicious weeds) will have given up under the membrane.

I've noted the bindweed and slugs problem, but unless I can get the cost of bark down to £1 to £1.50 a sq metre I don't see I will want to afford that.

However, I will chip the branches we have and see how big a pile I have before I buy any membrane.

One other thought is that I could use the grass clippings for a mulch. I normally make a big heap of them, then leave for a year, but a thin-ish layer (i.e. so it doesn't go slimy) replenished often might do the trick. And save me walking very far with the mower box - I can just empty straight on to the adjacent border! (and chuck on some Nitrogen to compensate)

 

Grass clippings will work fine as long as you add nitrogen as you mention to combat the lost nitrogen as they decompose.

For cheap chipped waste, try contacting a few tree surgeons for most firms the chipped waste is worth very little to them so they will probably be happy to tip a few weeks chippings for a small fee to cover fuel.

 

Kristen, in my herbaceous border I do similar to PeterS and plant the perennials dense so weeds don't have much chance to grow. I weed early in the year (like now!) and then don't bother again, apart from checking over occasionally. Of course, my borders are a lot smaller than you're planning!!