Re: Carpet in pathes

k* &* b*

Eric - I guess old carpet keeps weeds out of the paths, but if it looks bad,
it is a bad idea for a "community" garden.  Neighbors would probably prefer
the garden does not become the final resting place for the city's discarded
carpets.  Bruce

-----Original Message-----
From: Eric D. Hart <erichart@mtn.org>
To: community_garden@mallorn.com <community_garden@mallorn.com>
Date: Sunday, March 19, 2000 9:31 PM
Subject: [cg] Carpet in pathes

>        I am involved with several community gardens in Minneapolis,
>Minnesota and we are in the process of establishing new gardens and
>improving one of the large gardens we have.  The largest garden (150 large
>plots) has been gardened continuously since at least 1938 and has has a
>pretty loose organization until just the last few years.  One issue that is
>coming up currently is the use of old carpet in garden pathes.  The garden
>coordinator and others think the carpet looks really bad but there are
>certain gardeners (old timers and the more frugal) that think using carpet
>is a good idea.
>         Aside from the aesthetic issues, some of us are concerned that the
>carpet will leach or at the very least have the dirt, lead, and other
>nasties in the carpet wash out into the soil.  There are numerous toxic
>chemicals in carpet and treatments like ScotchGuard aren't benign either.
>Are there any studies of the use of carpet in garden pathes and what kind
of
>things can leach out?  I did find some discussion on this list several
years
>ago and it sounded like toxicity issues aside, that carpet didn't work all
>that well anyway.  Any experience or knowledge you can pass along would be
>appreciated.
>
>Eric Hart
>Longfellow Community Council
>Community Garden Subcommittee
>Minneapolis, MN
>612-722-3260
>
>
>
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