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Post by whitefox on May 31, 2017 21:14:00 GMT
Hi all
I am planning to use raw fleece as a cover for my allotment beds this autumn. The allotment manager is really interested in doing this and getting other plot holders involved. As the fleece might blow away without a bit of felting, I am thinking that we can lay out a raw fleece, wet it with hot water and maybe stomp down the wool to wet it. Do you think that would work to felt it slightly? Or perhaps we would need to roll it and then stomp? The wool is a crossbreed and I don't know how it felts yet (I haven't gotten it from the farm yet). Has anyone else tried this in their own garden/allotment?
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Post by Pandagirl on May 31, 2017 22:27:05 GMT
Welcome White Fox. One of our members, Zara Rooke, has written about this process. However I couldn't find it here or on her blog post. If I remember correctly, there was no special preparation other than covering the garden area with the fleece and let it sit over the winter. Hopefully, Zara will visit and be able to answer your question.
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Post by MTRuth on Jun 1, 2017 2:04:49 GMT
Great question but I haven't tried anything like this. I would think the water and stomping should work though.
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Post by halay on Jun 1, 2017 5:04:55 GMT
I know that dirty fleece is widely used here in gardening. People wrap fleece around young plants and put them in soil. This will prevent them against frost as well as against attacks of animals which very often eat roots and harm the plants. Wool is supposedly decomposed in about two years and you just leave it in soil.
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Post by whitefox on Jun 1, 2017 7:29:17 GMT
Thank you everyone for the replies. My main aim is to use a 'no dig' method in my own plots but I also want to show people the value of wool. I have heard about farmers dumping their fleeces as they have no sale value and I would ideally like to find people like this who are local and might benefit by selling their wool to gardeners. Most people at our allotments use the black plastic over the winter and this does not do anything for the soil, other than warm it. I did a workshop last year with Liz Clay and learned about waste wool and was really intrigued by it (who wastes wool? LOL). After a bit of experimentation, I would also like to do some natural dyeing using the plants around our allotments. This could make for some fun plot blankets!
Halay, do you mind if I ask what part of the world you are in? I am curious to know where people use raw fleece regularly in gardening! I am in Northern Ireland, btw.
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Post by zed on Jun 1, 2017 10:55:26 GMT
It seems it'd be more beneficial to at least felt some of it, any left over felt could be used to wrap delicate plants. Maybe you could borrow black plastic from one of the others and lay out and wet down your fleece, then roll it up for a light felting?
I think everyone used real fleece before the synthetic horticultural fleece.
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Post by halay on Jun 1, 2017 11:13:48 GMT
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Post by whitefox on Jun 2, 2017 14:57:18 GMT
I love Slovenia - such a beautiful country! And thank you for the very informative links. I want to be prepared when I approach the other plot holders to explain just why I want to take some smelly sheep's wool and cover their beds with it. Zed - great idea! It could also make it a bit more fun.  |
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Post by zara on Jun 2, 2017 23:40:37 GMT
I live in Northern Sweden and I use raw fleece as soil-cover in my vegetable garden. I have raised beds (about 3.5 x 1.5 meters) and just lay out the raw fleece (without any preparation) around the plants. I guess the wood edges around the beds helps keep the fleece in place too, but rain and watering flattens them down, and as the plats grow and spread out leaves they also keep the wool in place.
We have a small flock of sheep of our own, so it's the partly felted (often winter fleeces) or dirtiest parts of the fleeces that I sort out to lay in the garden. Benefits include keeping the soli moist, preventing weeds and adding nutrients to the soil (hence raw fleece, the dirtier the better ;-)). The wool is also a deterrent for snails. They don't like crawling over fleece, especially raw fleece which also contains some salts. BUT, they do thrive UNDER the fleece... So you need to be sure that you don't have loads of snail eggs in the soil you are covering (I made that mistake once).
I use new fleece each season, so I remove the previous fleece cover either after harvesting or in the spring. By then the rain has washed out all the dirt, and it's slightly felted (our sheep have wool that felts easily), so easy to roll up and remove. And then I can scrape off a layer of top soil too, if I see any signs of snail eggs.
I find it works really well for e.g. salads and various types of cabbages. This year I plan to use fleece around the strawberry plants too, which will be more permanent (probably just adding more fleece each year).
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Post by Pandagirl on Jun 3, 2017 2:36:06 GMT
Thank you Zara!
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Post by tracey on Jun 3, 2017 5:50:47 GMT
We have a small flock of sheep of our own, so it's the partly felted (often winter fleeces) or dirtiest parts of the fleeces that I sort out to lay in the garden. Benefits include keeping the soli moist, preventing weeds and adding nutrients to the soil (hence raw fleece, the dirtier the better ;-)). The wool is also a deterrent for snails. They don't like crawling over fleece, especially raw fleece which also contains some salts. BUT, they do thrive UNDER the fleece... So you need to be sure that you don't have loads of snail eggs in the soil you are covering (I made that mistake once). Ooh Zara I thought you had discovered the answer to every gardener's prayer there! How is your wrist, back to normal? |
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Post by zara on Jun 4, 2017 0:06:37 GMT
Tracey - I'm not sure if I have perfected the methods yet, but we got our sheep sheared today, so now I'm all set for another season of experiments in the garden. ;-) In any case, a couple of sheep do make a difference in the garden. The straw and sheep manure we remove from the sheep barn in spring (when the sheep are moved to the pasture) makes excellent compost and soil cover too. I use that to cover the potatoe patch, and between rows of beans and peas, or around squash plants. Also good to lay out around the base of fruit trees and berry bushes (provides nutrients and keeps the grass at bay). So a good gardening tip is to buy a couple of sheep (and some hens, for extra manure). ;-)
Wrist still a little stiff, but much better, thank you. :-) Just need to excercise it a bit more with felting (once I'm done with sowing in thevegetable garden...). ;-)
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Post by zara on Jun 4, 2017 0:10:32 GMT
Welcome White Fox. One of our members, Zara Rooke, has written about this process. However I couldn't find it here or on her blog post. If I remember correctly, there was no special preparation other than covering the garden area with the fleece and let it sit over the winter. Hopefully, Zara will visit and be able to answer your question. I thought I had written a post about this too - but couldn't find it. Perhaps I just planed to, or wrote about it in connection to something else. Will take more photos of fleeces in the vegetable garden this year. :-) |
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Post by Shepherdess on Jun 4, 2017 17:41:22 GMT
I thing this sounds like a great idea. I would say though that I do not find that wool breaks down in 2 years. It seems to last for ever in the fields. Zara What do you do with the old fleece? throw it out?
Nada I find it interesting that the mice leave plants wrapped in fleece alone. I would have thought they would steel it for their nests and then chew the plant.
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Post by whitefox on Jun 4, 2017 20:13:31 GMT
Thank you, Zara, for the information. I was thinking of leaving the fleece on and then adding to it as i thought it would break down after a year but we may have to rethink that idea in the spring. Great tip about the slug/snail eggs. I thought they might like it below the fleece but wondered if perhaps they get fed up not being able to surface and go elsewhere. |
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