Inconsiderate neighbours are irritating at the best of times. We have a couple of particularly bad ones. One of them rents his house out and has let the garden become so overgrown with ivy that the weeds actually reach underneath the foundations of our house! So when I wanted to put some small raised beds in our side return, I knew I’d have to be quite vigorous in avoiding weeds. But as I’m trying to garden organically, I didn’t want to have to resort to chemicals. So here’s a quick guide to weed-proofing raised beds:
1. Buy some raised beds and a couple of rolls of woven weed-proof membrane. It needs to be woven so that it will allow water to drain away from the beds (otherwise you’ll end up with raised ponds).
2. Cover the bottom of the beds with a trimmed layer of the membrane. I attached mine using thumbtacks
3. Line the inside of the bed with the same membrane. Without this double layer, soil will fall through the bottom and particularly insistent weeds
4. Fill and plant up as per usual. In my case, these planters were to go in our side return for the cats so they’re filled with cat grass. might be able to punch their way up
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| The planters finished and in the side return |
London to Land Girl 