Our School Grounds: Providing Food – Borders
Activity 2a: Preparing the site
This is a partnership project with: Learning through Landscapes, Buglife, Butterfly Conservation, Field Studies Council, OPAL, University of Stirling, TCV and the Bumblebee Conservation Trust
INTRODUCTION
The key to a really good border is in the preparation of the ground, even if the exciting bit is planting it! If you do not take enough time to prepare the ground properly it will cause all sorts of problems later. The first step to preparing your border is to block light getting to the ground, killing off the existing vegetation and making the space much easier to dig over.
The Polli:Nation team recommend you start establishing your new border or revamping your old border early in the autumn to give you maximum time to get the preparation right. Good preparation will save you lots of work later on.
USEFUL LINKS
· A guide from Garden Know How on killing grass naturally
· Advice from the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) on revamping an existing border
Maintenance and Volunteering Activities
· Supervising: laying out of border
· Supervising: removal and potting up of plants to keep (established borders)
· Maintenance: Watering potted plants through the winter at least fortnightly
· Maintenance: Checking the covering at least twice a week
This is a partnership project with: Learning through Landscapes, Buglife, Butterfly Conservation, Field Studies Council, OPAL, University of Stirling, TCV and the Bumblebee Conservation Trust
Materials and equipment:
· Mower or strimmer
· Planters/containers and compost for rescuing plants you intend to re-use from existing borders
· Rope or hosepipe for laying out the shape of a new border
· Plastic sheeting or porous weed membrane* (available from garden centres)
· Knife for cutting the covering
· Large stones/branches
* Porous membrane may be more expensive bur will also allow water to penetrate through it. Damp ground will be easier to prepare at the next stage.
Before you begin
If you are creating a new border on grass it’s best to mow or strim the area you want to prepare first. Once you have done this, lay out the shape of your new border using old hosepipe or rope.
If you are revamping an established border, you will need to remove existing vegetation before you start to prepare the soil. Dig out any plants you are intending to keep and replant once the border is prepared, unless, like trees or woody shrubs, they are too big and well established to do so. It is very important to protect the roots of plants you are transplanting, so ensure you minimise expose to the air and have a big enough container to replant them in. (See our Planters page for more information.)
Dig out plants you do not want to keep and compost them if you can. You will find that removing persistent pest plants such as Docks or Ground Elder at this stage will help weaken them at later stages in making your border. Useful information on the different types of pest plants can be found here.
Steps
1. Cover the border, making sure all of it is concealed and using the knife to cut to shape.
2. Weigh the sheeting down with stones, branches or heavy objects to make sure it won’t blow away or tear. It’s really important that the ground underneath is kept completely dark and covered to kill off the existing vegetation.
3. Check your border at least twice a week to make sure there are no gaps or holes in the covering. Block them up if there are.
4. After at least two months have passed, lift the covering off the ground. You can fold up and store your plastic sheeting for future use or compost the old cardboard/newspapers. The ground below should be mostly bare and ready to start digging over. You are ready to progress to Activity 2b – Preparing the Soil.
This is a partnership project with: Learning through Landscapes, Buglife, Butterfly Conservation, Field Studies Council, OPAL, University of Stirling, TCV and the Bumblebee Conservation Trust