[allotmentamy]

Would like some advice on where to star on my new allotment! The picture of it is below!

Would you strim the grass/weeds then apply weed-killer and rotavate or get a rake out and rake the weeds, apply weed-killer then rotavate?

Or do you have any other suggestions? Thanks, Amy x

[Motivator]

A good strim will lick it in to shape . Then cover and dig away . As and when.

[bigben]

As Motivator suggests - strim as low as you can, cover with weedfabric, plastic, cardboard or carpet - (for a short while only or the weeds grow thru it!) then uncover and dig it bit by bit.

Many weedkillers will not be so effective now as the plants need to be growing to take it in. It is hard to tell from your picture if this is mainly a grassed area or is full of lots of other weeds. If when you dig a bit the grass just turns out to be normal grass then you can cut sections of turf and stack it grass side to grass side. Cover with plastic and leave it to rot down. However if the grass is couch grass and has long tough roots it will not be so simple and you will need to dig out the roots and/or wait until spring to spray it.

[compostqueen]

It depends on whether you want to do bit by bit or in one fell swoop. Most of us can't do the whole lot at once, and if you do you're then confronted with the job of filling it, not an easy task.

You could cover most of it up, after strimming, with heavy duty sheet mulch (well pegged down). With this stuff covering up all the weeds they won't get any worse, and will die off eventually, but you have to leave it for a long time for all the weeds and brambles to give up the ghost. They will do though and the soil underneath will be left in good condition. You need to not walk all over it though, so I cordon mine off so I don't keep taking short cuts over it

It does allow you breathing space though to clear a bed at a time or however you wish to proceed. It all depends on how much time you have to dedicate. If you bite off more than you can chew there is the worry that you will get exhausted, fed up and give up

I did one bed at a time, as there's only me. I planted up a bed of onion sets so I had something growing while I made the next bed.  I'm still getting there 

[allotmentamy]

Thanks for your replies!

It's mainly just grass, with a few weeds then a row of brambles on the dividing line.

The only problem with strimming is trying to get hold of a cordless strimmer! I thought about digging it up by hand, as if it was turf then leaving that to rot down.

My plan is to do it bed by bed so can get some things planted now. That way it's motivating that I have something growing whilst I'm digging the rest! Have got some heavy duty plastic to cover over bit by bit.

Just wanted other people's advice really as I am new to all this! Have read a few books but there's different opinions in all of them!

Any more replies would be greatly appreciated x

[Yorkie]

http://www.allotment-garden.org/articles/Clearing_a_New_Allotment.php

This is a useful article.

Strimming will immediately make it look more manageable but you may find that a battery strimmer doesn't have the oomph you need for those weeds.

Cover those areas you're not going to tackle immediately.  Carpet may be banned on your site but it causes more problems than it solves even if permitted.

Take it slowly, don't rotavate immediately because you'll just create lots more weeds.

You may find that the soil is unworkable at times - keep off it it's frozen or sticking to your boots.  If you are growing potatoes and peas next year, and know where you want them to go on the plot, focus on those areas first as they go in quite early in the year.  Things like beans and the more tender veggies go in later in the season, giving you more time to clear those areas.

And take time to enjoy!

[AlaninCarlisle]

I took over a patch 15 x 15 metres two years ago from a neighbour in the October. It was basically an unwanted and totally overgrown piece of land that was separate from both our properties and many years ago had been a chicken-run. It's shaded by trees for at least half the day so was far from ideal and totally unsuited to sweetcorn and for some reason I've still to figure, sprouts. As far as weeds were concerned it had the lot including brambles, couch grass, nettles, docks, creeping buttercup and small elderberries. First thing I did was erect a wire-netting fence buried to a depth of about nine inches as we were infested with rabbits

I started by giving it a good strimming, spraying the lot with heavy amounts of glyphosate and then digging out the brambles and elders. The glyphosate killed all growth by winter so I then hand-dug it over and then on a dry day took a rotavator to it. In early spring I planted it all up with spuds and had a great crop. I filled many wheelbarrows full of freshly germinated weeds when I lifted the spuds in summer as clearly the weeds that were there had been seeding for many years.  

Once the spuds were lifted in June/July I split it up into eight separate beds with old planks laid onto heavy duty polythene sheets to separate the beds and provide firm dry walkways. The newly tilled beds were planted with a selection of brassicas, leeks, salad crops, peas and beans and did reasonably well in that first year although weeds are still a major problem, especially docks and nettles. The other two problems there are pigeons and slugs

Last winter I heavily manured it and have had a decent crop of most things off it except for sprouts which don't seem to like shaded ground at all

[gillian62]

Hello fellow female Lincoln Allotment owner!!

I started with a half plot last year, and this year have taken the other half plot.

My advice - start in a small area, then do another area.  That way you can see some results for your hard work.  I started with squares, which I split into 9 last year, so that I did a mini square at a time.  This year I have changed these squares into 3 longer lengths.  So you can adapt and change what you start with.

Enjoy the challenge!!

[greentig3r]

Having just cleared half a plot of similar-looking ground, I'd say cut the topgrowth to stop anything seeding and get stuck in digging. We used something we inherited with the plot that looks like this...

http://greenblokes.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2&products_id=11&zenid=cd05ba6c3eb0d82b3ab9f6853a67b045

Simple and effective.

I've really enjoyed the digging, it's nice to feel you've had contact with every bit of earth on your plot.

[angelavdavis]

I don't really like strimmers - they frighten me!  Our plot is full of slow worms and I am sure we would kill loads had we used a strimmer.

We started by just cutting back the growth with shears, pulling up the nettles and larger weeds as we went and putting them into old buckets of water to start creating nettle and weed tea to feed plants with.

We then invested in a roll of weed suppressant to stop stuff growing before we could clear it (carpet is banned now on the site).  I bought it online - it was about £30 for 100m.

We roughly marked out the beds and actually didn't clear anything - we used the lasagne gardening approach and simply begged cardboard from neighbours, shops and freecycle and used this to cover the weeds.  We then piled farmyard manure, grass clippings (again from free sources), shredded paper, newspaper, etc.  Then topped with compost (the only thing we bought other than the weed suppressant).  We then planted straight into this.  As the more pernicious weeds grew through, these were pulled out. 

We did take over the plot in June so the soil was rock hard and impossible to dig (barely any had been previously cultivated for as long as anyone could remember).  However, I would still use this method at this time of year too - planting onions and garlic or simply missing out the compost and leaving the beds covered in weed suppressant ready for spring, adding compost on top come spring before planting.

Later, we double dug other beds, adding manure, etc yet the ones that have performed the best by far are the lasagne beds, so we are now recreating the lasagne approach on the previously dug beds. 

Just to demonsrate how bad our plot was - it took us two months to find carpet under one part of the plot because it was so overgrown!

[stompy]

I had the same thing last weekend and it took me a very hard 4 hrs to clear it by pulling out the larger weeds by hand and strimming the rest.

As you can see though it is doable.
If you get it done now the frosts will kill off most the other weeds, Anuals and knock the pirenials right back, the only weeds left will be the grasses.

You can then dig out all the pirenials Dock/Thistle (etc) through the winter and at the same time remove the grass roots.

By Spring you will have done most the work and will be able to start the season running.

Andy

[allotmentamy]

I am so appreciative of all your comments...I'm going to do half and half... weed killer and cover it over on one half and then the other half by hand with a 'weed whacker' and pull the big weeds out by hand..that way i'm getting some sort of results straight away! Going to mark out the beds possibly with a path down the middle then 4 or 5 either side! So will dig from there! Will keep you all updated..thanks very much for your replies x

[strangerachael]

I think the lasagne plan sounds good! If you wanted to strim the whole lot before covering it you can hire petrol strimmers quite cheaply from tool hire centres. There are a few things you can plant now such as garlic, so you might want to dig over a small section just to have the satisfaction of having planted something! Good luck 

[tonel]

Me and my wife started on out allotment in April - strimmed it down best we could, marked out some plots and covered them over and did a little bit at a time - the digging was hard work but it's been worth it, and we've had quite a bit of produce this year. Am hoping to get the rest of the plots dug over the winter ready for next year, along with planting some fruit. As many people have said, best bit of advice I found was just to do a little bit at a time. Good luck!

[Sue33]

if you speak to a committee member/ neighbouring plot holders someone may have a petrol strimmer you could use, for just the cost of the petrol, anyway, whatever you decide to do, enjoy !!