[Pitufo]

I have just acquired an allotment on which the weeds were way above my head. At my age I thought I may be dead before I cleared it on my own so I paid to have it strimmed etc and was amazed what emerged....11 raised beds, some a bit rotted but repairable, a full size bathtub to which I have added two blueberry bushes, a full size picnic table with integral bench seats, a nice shed and a big wooden frame thingy which I am not sure about its use.

I have planted several fruit bushes and strawberries but my main objective is to dig, weed, add rotted farmyard manure to the beds to encourage earthworms and then cover with landscape fabric until next season. On three of the beds I have sown white clover as an experiment.

Now I hope for rain everyday.

[New shoot]

Hi Pitufo and welcome 

Sounds like you had some nice finds under all those weeds 

[Fairy Plotmother]

Hello and welcome. Sounds like you've hit the jackpot!

[Yorkie]

Welcome to the site and congrats on your new lotty 

Hope yesterday's rain did some good! 

[Pitufo]

Hello Yorkie, yes the rain was very welcome. I wish I could eat weeds.

[snowdrops]

Hi there, welcome to the site, amazing what you can find under the weeds😊

[Footy Man]

Sound a bit like the plot next to mine although yours has unearthed a lot more. After strimming  and clearing the best thing is to burn it all off before digging over the adding well rotted manure.

Good luck

[Pitufo]

Hello Footyman, Oddly enough I had a bid bonfire today, it was really good. But I was only brave enough to do it because a long time neighbour said it was ok. Previously I was burning small amounts at a time in an incinerator and putting the ashes on the compost.  Now I smell of smoke, which is a pretty good smell. 

[sunshineband]

Hello Pitufo, and welcome. You have a ready made plot under all those weeds, how good is that!!

Are you sure you are not going to start to grow anything until next Spring? There are lots of crops you could get going now, or in the Autumn, that will feed you well and give you the joy of eating something you have grown your self.

http://www.allotment-garden.org/garden-advice-month/fruit-vegetable-growing-july/

Have a look in this link, perhaps ...

I shall be sowing perpetual spinach, pak choi choy sum, red mustard and coriander this week, and the spinach and mustard will crop over the Winter and well into next year too I hope, with a little protection from a cloche.  Just an idea to think about


PS - Just read on another thread that you have sown perpetual spinach😉

[Pitufo]

Hello Sunshine, it is really tempting to follow your suggestion and start planting things but once I do that I will be diverted from the clearance project. I have almost finished digging and weeding one half of the plot but the other half is going to be more of a challenge which I would like to break the back of. When the chaps who did the strimming went for the really bad brambles, knotweed and goose grass areas at two of the sides they were attacked by bees from the hive on the next plot, or I should say total jungle, and they could not continue. Now I am having a go at this area when my back aches from digging and am finding useful stuff but no raised beds unfortunately 
I really appreciate all the suggestions that everyone makes and will follow them through when I don't have the wilderness redeveloping at the rate it is doing right now. Thanks. PS I have planted several soft fruit bushes and some strawberries so I havnt been totally negligent but they are pretty low maintainance at the moment.

[snowdrops]

Are you sure you have knotweed😱😱😱. If it is I think I'm right in saying it has to be reported & dealt with professionally, not sure to whom & by but maybe environmental services

[Pitufo]

Eeeeek I meant bindweed. I do have a small infestation of knotweed in my home garden and you are correct about treatment. The professional company started treatment it in 2016 and they regularly come and continue to treat it and guarantee it will be eradicated by 2018. When the gas board came recently to install new gas piping under the garden they went to great lengths to ensure that they did not dig within 7metres of the plants and threaded the piping underneath the bed where the knotweed is. They took the issue very seriously, I was very impressed. I suppose if one has knotweed on a council allotment then the council would bear the cost but in a private garden it is the owner. In fact, to attack knotweed in the way I am attacking bindweed could end up with a big fine or two years in prison! Phew....I'm glad you spotted my mistake 

[sunshineband]

I am glad it is not knotweed!! The other good news is that bindweed is manageable with persistence 😉

[snowdrops]

Phew that's a relief, shame about your garden infestation of it though, I bet that's pricey

[Pitufo]

Princey I'll say. But it's worth it in the long run when mortgages are refused because of it. And at least it was caught when there were only a few stems. Damn stuff grows almost as fast as the weeds on my plot.