Cardboard Mulching

I have rather a large area in which I need to kill off the weeds before I can start to plant my perennial vegetable/herb garden. The answer is cardboard mulch. I've been hitting the supermarkets for all the cardboard boxes I can get my hands on. I think they think I'm a bit peculiar. When I tell them I want the cardboard as mulch, they look at me as though I've grown an extra head.

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So I'm working my way over the area (about 18m by 36m) with the cardboard and weighing it all down with bricks and a lot of rocks dug out of the general rubbish elsewhere in the garden. I hope and pray that we don't get any mighty winds in the near future. I have nightmares about the whole lot lifting off and settling over the neighbours. I've already apologised in advance to the folks at the back - the plot is going to look really ugly for a few months until I can get on top of this.

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Still, the reason that I have used cardboard is that once down, I will not have to pick it up again. The bricks will be relaid as paths (thank heavens for e-bay - reclaimed bricks at an affordable price!) and I'll plant straight through the cardboard. As I get the compost bins going and the comfrey growing, I will then be able to mulch with something rather more attractive and nutritious.

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Why so little frogspawn in the area? One scrawny blob in the pond at the front. One blob in a ditch up the hill, and no more. This area should be crawling with frogs. Where are they????

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To the list of local birds, I can add jackdaws and curlews. The local rook population seems very healthy indeed. There are two rookeries within a mile and there are more rooks to be seen every day.... hundreds of them....