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Recently got an allotment. No dig or not seems to be a fairly big one right now. It sounds nice but I don't have the same Amazon addiction as some people so I don't have 100m² of cardboard that I can lay across the plot.
Buying a shitload of cardboard and mulch isn't an expense I am interested in right now. Over time I do want to move towards more perennial and larger plants so there won't be much digging required anyway other than when replacing something. Or tubers/bulbs that you have to dig to harvest and plant anyway.
I got all my cardboard for free just asking stores if I can take their boxes, small businesses especially are happy to get rid of boxes especially if they don’t have to cut them up
Suppose it depends on how it comes, but wouldn't it be pretty bulky to carry if you wanted to cover a large area?
Would dead leaves be any good? Could just take loads of those from the floor around trees in parks and fill the bags on my bike. About 70L between them. Still think it would take a while to cover an allotment though.
Also got a compost bin but while nearly full it's going to be a while to rot down.
Dead leaves are great actually, even better if you mow them into confetti since they will break down a lot faster. You can solarize a bed with a tarp pretty easily too for weed control. Chip drop is a great way to get a bunch of organic material to put into soil or mulch with too. The cardboard works well but there’s plenty of other options
Don't have a lawnmower, but usually just below the surface layer of leaves they are already like confetti.
Previous owner used tarps and the weeds grew through. Plastic strands of tarps are all over my plot because of it and where the edges were fraying a lot.
I tell people all the time for moving that nursing homes have the best boxes if you don’t mind it saying weird things like xxl adult diapers. Probably also true for killing preventing weeds/grass.
I would love to have no-till going, but it's also not reasonable for me. Actual mulch is uncommon in Japan and cardboard just blows away in my area (even with 15-20cm long U-shaped staples in multiple places per piece and on joints; it be windy here). Do what you can now and don't worry about not being the best or perfect.
I normally see the cardboard covered in some kind of mulch to hold it down. Hopefully once my compost bin has started to be productive I will be able to use that at least which should help a bit.
On top of the free cardboard as the other poster suggested (coffee shops are my preferred because I can get grounds for compost too) My friend got free mulch through Chip Drop. Arborists need to get rid of mulch and just want it gone.
My friend is in the US but they have an activity checker and I just through in Manchester and they say there's mulch there so I'd imagine it's semi global.
I think chip drop can be massive volumes though. I don't have enough space for a huge drop. My allotment is off the path and the site would require someone being there to take the delivery to unlock the gate. Both make chipdrop impractical from what I can tell where they want a place that is available to dump any amount at any time.