Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: rowlandwells on December 05, 2018, 12:18
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we dug all the potatoes and cleared the ground spread manure ready to plough the ground having had a couple of problems with tractor that held me up from ploughing the allotments for a couple of days
as its been raining here for several days we went down the allotments yesterday to look at the ground and the ground is sodden far to wet to even attempt to plough so it looks like it will be a spring plough that I'm to happy doing as I was always told to turn the ground over to overwinter so it cultivates better in the spring
basiclly like you winter dig although the modern way is no dig but i will need to plough in the manure because there's a lot of straw to burry hopefully the straw mite be rotting overwinter making it easy to burry :unsure:
in your opinion is winter digging the best option or spring digging?
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we dug all the potatoes and cleared the ground spread manure ready to plough the ground having had a couple of problems with tractor that held me up from ploughing the allotments for a couple of days
as its been raining here for several days we went down the allotments yesterday to look at the ground and the ground is sodden far to wet to even attempt to plough so it looks like it will be a spring plough that I'm to happy doing as I was always told to turn the ground over to overwinter so it cultivates better in the spring
basiclly like you winter dig although the modern way is no dig but i will need to plough in the manure because there's a lot of straw to burry hopefully the straw mite be rotting overwinter making it easy to burry :unsure:
in your opinion is winter digging the best option or spring digging?
IMO digging is best done in the spring , winter rain will take nutrients down and digging will bring them back up to the surface for the seeds !
Heavy soils may benefit from a bit of frost to break the clods but nutrients will still be washed down or worse still away into the nearest drain, ditch or river.
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I prefer to have digging finished by Christmas, so the soil gets a chance to settle down again before Spring sowing and planting. Here, the 'window' for good digging/forking over is very short in spring, and easily missed.
I wonder how much are our choices governed by the soil we have? It does obviously make a lot of difference.
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I have always left my digging until a) its warm enough for me, b) I feel in the mood. But I always put some rotted compost around about now, and let the worms do the rest for me. Mrs Bouquet
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I'm a fan of no-dig. The idea is you feed the soil, not the plant. So covering the surface with well rotted compost/manure in autumn (or in spring) means the worms will take it into the soil, and the compost/manure will not leach its benefits. If you feed the plant i.e. with fertiliser, this will leach into the ground water and any nearby streams etc. In addition a surface layer of compost smothers weed seeds whereas digging brings dormant weed seeds to the surface where they will sprout - the weeds are adapted to growing in this country's climate, so they will start into growth before any veg seeds are sown. I know my allotment neighbours think its baloney, but they rotavate in autumn and again in spring and get good results, but a healthy crop of weeds as well. I suppose you pays your money and you takes your choice! Oh - and its better for my back!
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I wonder how much are our choices governed by the soil we have? It does obviously make a lot of difference.
Quite agree StiggysMam, we have very light soil, well beach truth be told! I prefer the spring dig.
What ever method works for you then use it, simples.