[gsc]

Hi all

Can anyone help a newbie deicde what equipment to focus on first?

We have a 2 acre paddock which will mostly be used to exercise and train the dogs but I want to take a section for growing - not sure how much yet.  I'm fencing off a small section of the garden for things like herbs etc that I want to get to quickly but mostly I want to plant in the paddock.

I erected a small shed 6x7, and a small plastic greenhouse 2x3 metres , both very temporary at the moment as one or two of you will have seen from my post about planning in the chat section.

Since I have to deal with grass and sometimes hedges my first purchase was a Ryobi brushcutter/strimmer to which I've added cultivator and chain saw attachments (read tiller and pruner I think).

I'm wondering whether I should have gone for a proper cultivator, either second hand or something like these £350 Maxtra's on eBay.

I have no real idea where to start, getting from bumpy sodden pasture to plantable ground.  I think this year I will mostly use the greenhouse and grow bags while I work out a plan of action for the future.

All advice would be gratefully recieved.

Gay

[Carrotcake]

The best way to clear an uncultivated area is in bite size chunks and by hand!

If you're not in any great hurry to use the ground, I would mow/strim the area and cover it with anything that will exclude the light, eg old carpet, cardboard or black polythene, leave it til the autumn and then start to dig any perennial weeds out.

As you dig, you can then add fresh or well rotted manure to the dug surface(if you can get hold of it) and leave that over the winter to be taken into the soil by the worms and weather.

I've just bought a Mantis but haven't used it yet and won't until I have cleared the majority of the perennial weeds like couch grass, bindweed etc from the areas I've cleared otherwise the Mantis will just make lots of baby demons by chopping the roots up to make loads of new plants.

Good luck

[poppies]

Hi rather than buy a cultivator why dont you hire one, on the island we can hire one for £26 a day or if you pick it up fri the same price for the whole weekend, although agreeing about the weeds being chopped they are also very easy to dig out of cultivated soil.

As for your other problem we have been doing this for nearly 6 years, get a couple of sheep and a holding number  register with defra and you will be classed as a smallholding/small farm

[gsc]

Thanks both.

Actually I can probably get a local gardener to rotavate a section at a time for me the first time.  Maybe after that the Ryobi with it's cultivator attachment would do the job??

I suppose it depends how much patience I can muster - got the short straw when I was born and patience was handed out - got none at all 

On the subject of smallholdings, opinion seems to be divided.  I'm told that being registered as a smallholding doesn't have any legal status as far as planning is concerned.  They still have the power to say this is NOT agricultural - it's hobby/recreational and you need to apply for change of use.

I would love to think that isn't so.