[Mark's Sussex Allotment]

Evening all,

My other allotment peers have really amazing soil, dark and fine.

Mine however is almost grey and lumpy. A new plot for me.

I just bought a 3 pronged cultivator to try and remove the lumps.

What's the best way of acheiving the fine tilth without a tiller or rotavator?

And is the dark brown soil just years of hardwork?

[JayG]

If yours really does look significantly different from theirs the odds are theirs is down to years of cultivation and improvement, especially with organic matter.

It's very difficult to get a fine tilth on unimproved clay soil, if that's what you have, although the cultivator will help. Why not ask one of the friendly-looking fellow allotmenteers about the basic nature of the soil and what he or she did to improve it?

[sunshineband]

JayG is right --you might be getting an unfair comparison 

I use a rake once the main lumps are less that two inches across, and bash about well with the back, as well as with the teeth

[Mark's Sussex Allotment]

This is my soil picture 1.

Their soil is picture 2

[Mark's Sussex Allotment]

My soil apparently hasn't been worked on in 5 years and had chicken houses on it.

It's not clay, but was quite compacted.

[LilacSandy]

At the end of the year if you dig the soil over and leave it the frosts and rain will break it down and you will have a fine tilth.  Also keep your compost heap topped up and use it every year and your soil will rival theirs in no time.

[miggs]

Just popped in to say my soil looks a bit like yours. I think my plot had been empty for yrs until I got it about 1yr ago. Since then I have used a rotavator to turn it over in the first place. Most weekends since then I just keep digging over a small patch each weekend, its improving slowly.