[pepe le pew]

Hi,

Wonder if anyone can offer any advice on this.  I'm in the process of renovating an allotment which has been left fallow for about twenty years.

I recently bit the bullet, so to speak, and started excavating a large lump of ground which we were certain had been used for burning.  This has in fact turned out to be the case and we have found a fair amount of burnt metal occasional plastics, glass and quite a bit of red and gray ash under the grass.  We know nothing has been burnt on this patch now for about 7-10 years. 

My question is how do I go about getting this patch ready for growing?  Will it be enough just to dig a load of compost and manure into the ground or is there any special way it needs to be treated?

Thanks Muchly 

[Kleftiwallah]

We took over an allotment that had had a chicken run which was burnt down.  Dug out lots of chicken wire, nails, screws and hinges they still emerge from time to time.  We dig in loads of manure and now the ground is as good as the rest of the plot.    Cheers,   Tony.

[RichardA]

I bought the orchard next door which had a major burning ground on it, I suspect garden rubbish plus household rubbish and Guy Fawlkes night etc. I planned beds around it so I was not left to cope with it falling across grass areas and grass paths etc. I did not burn anything myself and simply dug it over, patiently picking out the debris and then loads of garden compost and a heap that had been were the residents had tipped grass cuttings and leaves over the past few years was all dug into it. I planted potatoes first to help break up the soil. Not a problem at all for them or any crop since although I still dig up odd rubbish particular molten plastic or broken blackened glass. I can see where it was by light red ash in soil but no one else would.
Go for it but expect to have to be patient and pick out rubbish. After all in many cultures burning was used to clear land for planting. Just be alert to anything nasty like molten plastic or any hint of chemical disposal.
Best of luck.
R

[compostqueen]

I cleared a lot of my plot by having small weedfires on it (ssssh) and I found that garlic grew really well there

[Trillium]

That's tricky when plastics and who knows what have been burned in that spot. You might want to talk to the allotment management about it.

If it were mine, I'd put in raised beds in the worst areas rather than dig into them. Nails are one thing, unknown chemicals with unknown lifetimes are another.

Worse case, you might want to send off a soil sample for chemical content.

[Yorkie]

I tend to agree with Trillium, given the unknowns which almost certainly may have been burned there.  The risk of contamination could be considerable.

[pepe le pew]

Thanks for the the replies.

Think I may have to go the route of digging in compost and manure and sifting out metal, raised bed might be an option depending on what else I find, so far its only been occasional chunks of plastic but a lot of red ash.  My other half is going to pick axe in to see how deep it goes.

We have had concerns about the contamination of soil as we've found asbestos pipes and raised them with the allotment comity however all they are interested in is seeing the land cultivated.  We've rented the area for a few years now (attached to our house) and at the start of the year the old comity was 'over thrown' so to speak, and despite the old comity's general uselessness they did acknowledged there was a problem with the area we rented and were letting us sort it bit by bit.  However the new lot turned round in June and told us to have the area 2/3 cultivated by September or have our contract terminated.  Its not been going to badly but due to the size of this patch we need to get it functioning so we can hit the 2/3 target.  It finding something to plant between now and September that going to be a head scratch I think!

[compostqueen]

The whole of the allotment could be considerably contaminated but then again it might not.  If it's not been used for burning for 7 - 10 years is there really a considerable risk?