| Article Index |
|---|
| The Black Plastic technique |
| Some basic botany |
| Simple instructions for laying the plastic |
| Trouble shooting |
| All Pages |
The black plastic technique can be very useful for difficult weeds.
Some weeds and grasses, which grow from stolons or rhizomes, are very difficult to control with organic techniques. These plants include;
|  |
|  |
|  |
The black plastic technique can be very useful for these difficult weeds and is completely effective in some situations. Used in combination with other techniques, such as pH or fertility modification, digging and mulching, the black plastic technique is probably the best option for good control of stoloniferous plants without herbicides. The system works best in hot weather and may only be completely effective in summer or autumn in southern Australia.
I first discovered this technique intuitively when gardening around a house built on short poles. The Kikuyu from one side of the yard had grown under the house and I started pulling at one piece. It had grown diagonally under the building, going right through to the other side. I pulled it up and wrapped it around my arm, much like rolling up a hose or a rope. At the other extreme there was a healthy two and a half metres of vigorously growing Kikuyu. I was amazed at the persistence of the Kikuyu, which just kept growing through, searching for the light. On reflection, this incident lead to me developing the technique described in this article.
