A Kiwi new to this site

Don from New Zealand
I found this PERMIES site - read a number of entries and interesting articles - so decided to join you all.
Of course down here in the South Pacific we now head into winter ( MAY ) where as those living up the Northern Hemisphere begins to head into the warmer months.
I thought that I might tell you about an experiment I have tried over the past few years - to keep the weeds at bay in our vege garden.
One day a couple or so years ago I was parked outside a flooring company. One of the flooring contractors parked his van beside the carpet companies Rubbish dumpster and began
shoving in rolls of carpet he had removed from a job. Watching him dump those bits of carpet - it sparked an idea..

The contractor dumping the carpet - was only too happy for me to take some of the old carpet. to save dumping fees.
Loading the trunk of our car I took some home and I carpeted the vege garden and also under the Lemon tree. To the carpet I placed on the vege garden I cut holes and slits and planted the seedlings.. Didn't have to worry about
weeding the garden any more .. Rain goes through the carpet - stays damp  and also it doesn't dry out as fast
Has anyone else used this system?

Hi Donald, welcome to Permies!  I've never used carpet in a garden but my parents used to use it for the path through the woods to the garden.  It kept dad from having to mow for years and it was easy to find worms for fishing (just lift up the carpet in a spot and grab them quickly).  

I probably wouldn't use it in a garden myself since I'm not sure what the carpet is made of and as it breaks down, the stuff it's made of ends up in my soil.  I tend to start a mulching area with cardboard (brown and no tape) but that probably isn't perfect either.

Beautiful garden and lemon tree!

Mike Jay wrote:Hi Donald, welcome to Permies!  I've never used carpet in a garden but my parents used to use it for the path through the woods to the garden.  It kept dad from having to mow for years and it was easy to find worms for fishing (just lift up the carpet in a spot and grab them quickly).  

I probably wouldn't use it in a garden myself since I'm not sure what the carpet is made of and as it breaks down, the stuff it's made of ends up in my soil.  I tend to start a mulching area with cardboard (brown and no tape) but that probably isn't perfect either.

Beautiful garden and lemon tree!

Mike,
A number of years ago - the saying went "In New Zealand we have not quite 3.75 million people - but about 74 million sheep" - and so there was plenty of wool to make 100% wool carpet and/or wool blended carpet.  
I guess we as kids grew up lying around on the warm carpeted floors - so I am not aware of any significant problems created by carpet.  Of course other countries may use manufactured polypropyline type materials to manufacture their carpet floor coverings.

Oh, that's much better.  I was imagining the stuff we have here where it's artificial yarn held together with glue that crumbles into powder (into the ground).  

I've heard of wool carpet but never officially seen it.  That would be quite the resource.  I wonder if it would work as insulation in a building?

Hi and welcome! I'm a kiwi living in Canada, and I must say I miss the climate, and the ability to grow things like lemons, grapefruit and feijoa!

I've heard of this before. Good to see it working. If the carpet lasts only 3 years then something identifies it as food and isn't being killed by toxic gick leaching out of the carpet. I have no idea about the glues they use for keeping the wool in place, or the dyes they use either.

Anyway, I like the pics, and keep up the innovations

hau Donald, welcome to permies and I too have used carpet as a mulch layer, I also like it for covering compost heaps.

As long as your carpets are made in NZ I don't think you will have any issues with toxicity, I believe the "glue" they use is natural rubber based and if it is, no worries mate.

Redhawk

Mike Jay wrote:Oh, that's much better.  I was imagining the stuff we have here where it's artificial yarn held together with glue that crumbles into powder (into the ground).  

I've heard of wool carpet but never officially seen it.  That would be quite the resource.  I wonder if it would work as insulation in a building?

Mike - Of course SHEEP'S WOOL - Hey! I'm not trying to promote wool and I'm no expert - but from what I rememember from school days 60 odd years ago - Wool is a terrible conductor of heat if thats the term and it traps air within itself..hense warmth stays trapped.
Put on a jersey knitted with sheeps wool and then try one knitted with cotton or other artificial yarns - you will definately notice the difference. They do I believe mix wool with home insulation fibres..

Nick Kitchener wrote:Hi and welcome! I'm a kiwi living in Canada, and I must say I miss the climate, and the ability to grow things like lemons, grapefruit and feijoa!

I've heard of this before. Good to see it working. If the carpet lasts only 3 years then something identifies it as food and isn't being killed by toxic gick leaching out of the carpet. I have no idea about the glues they use for keeping the wool in place, or the dyes they use either.

Anyway, I like the pics, and keep up the innovations

Nick - Re my saying the the carpet is 3 years old ( That is how long ago I picked it out of the trash bin ) It may have been on someone's floor for some 30 odd years prior. Of course I have no idea what glues are holding it together either. Of course we are going into winter here and at 7am it
is still dark outside.. We have two Feijoa trees - One standard and one mamoth - I will when it gets a bit lighter go take a photo of them - They are not that large but produce so much fruit. Of course we supply the neighbors and anyone else who wants a bagfull - Surprising how many people don't like
them.. Our pride and joy is our SAPOTE tree - Fruiting now too.  Staff from the Auckland Botanical Gardens have come a few years ago and taken cuttings. Do not know if they were successful - but our tree keeps producing.. We have to be quick though - The birds love them..

For NICK - Living in Canada - said he misses FEIJOA's in entry above: ( How we pronounce the word is - FEE - JOE - AH )  I said we had two trees growing in the backyard and I'd take a couple of photos..
Feigoa's are a fruit - originally from Brazil I believe - and grow extremely well in our backyards. There are commercial growers and they seem to have gotten them to grow larger than a Kiwifruit. However
our homegrown Feigoa's are smaller. I took a photo of them beside a USA one dollar note and I also cut one in half to show the unique flesh.  Most people scoop out the white flesh with a spoon
others ( me included ) eat the Feigoa whole.

Kia ora Donald! good to see more Kiwis at permies....

I used to use scrap carpeting quite a bit for my no-till three sisters plots to suppress the pasture prior to sowing in spring. I stopped because of a few things: moving them into place and picking them up is a chore when they're wet (and in a North Island spring that is pretty much a given); wind rearranged them far too many times, creating more work; the older wool carpet with hessian backing does start to break down and then the smaller pieces are more easily carried off by wind; and the newer stuff is synthetic and I decided I didn't want that in my soil.

However, in places where we just put it down and leave it, it's brilliant. I do need to go around and pick up the synthetic pieces at some stage. Maybe I'll put them into the kontiki when I'm making biochar.

Love those feijoas...we have 14 trees and are in the peak of the glut right now. Our son likes to scoop a bunch into the blender and make a smoothie. They also dry into the most awesome fruit leather in the dehydrator.

Might have to swap sapote tips with you...I recently got one that is still in a bag and I'm wondering where to plant it out in terms of microclimate. It grew a lot over the summer and autumn.