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Talkback: Weeds on the allotment
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in Talkback
I would like to re-emphasise the points made in the excellent programme screened on 27th March which encouraged gardeners to avoid using peat.
The salient points against the use of peat:
1. Peat is a carbon sink
1.1. There is more carbon locked up in the peat lands of the UK than in the woods and forests of France and the UK combined.
1.2. The planet’s peat deposits contain more carbon than the whole of the atmosphere.
1.3. The creation of these deposits ten thousand years ago sucked sufficient carbon from the atmosphere to trigger an ice age.
1.4. All excavated peat once exposed to the atmosphere will oxidise to CO2.
1.5. Each tonne of peat excavated creates 3.5 tonnes of CO2.
2. Peat is a valuable and rare habitat which is home to a number of dwindling species such as the sundew and raft spider.
3. Peat bogs and mires are complex and unique eco-systems, which develop over thousands of years within their own micro-climate.
4. Embedded in its different layers are the remains of human history, which is providing a valuable insight into the way homo sapiens developed its management of the environment going back thousands of years.
The salient points against the use of peat:
1. Peat is a carbon sink
1.1. There is more carbon locked up in the peat lands of the UK than in the woods and forests of France and the UK combined.
1.2. The planet’s peat deposits contain more carbon than the whole of the atmosphere.
1.3. The creation of these deposits ten thousand years ago sucked sufficient carbon from the atmosphere to trigger an ice age.
1.4. All excavated peat once exposed to the atmosphere will oxidise to CO2.
1.5. Each tonne of peat excavated creates 3.5 tonnes of CO2.
2. Peat is a valuable and rare habitat which is home to a number of dwindling species such as the sundew and raft spider.
3. Peat bogs and mires are complex and unique eco-systems, which develop over thousands of years within their own micro-climate.
4. Embedded in its different layers are the remains of human history, which is providing a valuable insight into the way homo sapiens developed its management of the environment going back thousands of years.
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Width between? well Chris Beardshaw said in a very old GW that monks, one of the original developers of the bed system, used to make the distance between beds the length from knee to foot, so you can kneel between beds!!...these days though wide enough for that and a wheel barrow is my measure, about 0.8 - 1 m
If you make raised beds you'll be able to add plenty of good organic matter to improve you light chalky soil for greedy feeding veg and fruit.
With regular nettles I am soaking in water as read in my herb book that it is good to be used as a vitamin spray for the garden. Lesley
Re. weeding, what do you do where you get weeds within the rows of root veg such as carrots, beetroot and parsnips? I keep the weeds down between the rows but have not weeded within the rows for fear of damaging the seedlings.
http://www.ontheallotment.co.uk
I know weeds detract form the plants which they grow around but there was an article in new scientist (I think!) which said that certain breeds of bees and butterfly are dying out and this is partly due to the fact that we are weeding in such abundance, especially with the growing interest in our gardens. I know we are told to plant things for wildlife but they are losing nutrients that would be available to them if we hadn't pulled up some-actually quite lovely- weeds. Could they not just be moved to a weed patch? I do!!
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