[ThePragmatist]

Hi,

This is my first post so please bear with me.

I got my allotment in September and I am slowly trying to clear the ground to start growing things.

The soil is quite heavy clay and is at the bottom of the slope that the allotment site is on, so it is one of the wetter plots.

The ground is covered in a mix of grass and perennial weeds that I dont want in my compost heap and its an organic site so no weedkiller even if I wanted to.

There is no escaping the fact that I need to continue to put in a lot of hard work to clear the ground but I'm interested in how people would approach the site.

My default method for clearing the ground is to take a fork and turn over the soil picking through it to pull out all the weeds. Then go over it again to get out all the weeds I missed.

I have seen various people talk about digging over with spades and azadas as well when clearing an allotment but I'm guessing that once the ground has been turned over you still have the laborious process of picking through it to remove all the weeds.

So, what are the sage words of wisdom from those of you who have been through it all before?

Cheers!

[m1ckz]

in a few words,,,,little and often is the best way i find

[bigben]

I do recommend weed fabric. See if you can strim or scythe down the growth that is currently there and cover with weed fabric or thick cardboard to prevent regrowth. Then as Mick suggests - turn over an area, fork out the weeds and roots and start to plant. Then move onto another area. The advantage of covering ground is it suppresses growth and if left long enough will kill some weeds.

Little and often - small areas so you can see progress - just a couple of square yards at a time is better than a rushed job over a bigger area.

[noshed]

What you're doing sounds fine. Once you've cleared a patch you can sow some stuff - broad beans, peas early carrots, whatever you like. Leave plenty of space between the rows and then you can enjoy the benefits of hoeing.
Once you've got a bed on the go, the next ones will come easier and then you'll be able to look over your work with satisfaction, even if every single thing you want to do isn't finished.
If your soil is heavy clay and badly drained you might want to think about a longer term strategy of breaking up the soil and putting in some gravel soakaways or some such. There's plenty of articles about that sort of thing on here. Look at the stuff about clearing a new plot for a start.

[Stevens706]

You seem to be doing it right, one thing you might want to try, after clearing an area leave it for a couple of weeks to let the weeds germinate then hoe them off and sow / plant

[ThePragmatist]

Thanks!

I am a bit behind on clearing things precisely because I spent lots of time digging a massive soakaway and a ditch which I am backfilling with all the stones I pull out as I clear the ground.

I have been using a large piece of plywood that a neighbouring allotmenteer gave me to try to knock back the weeds. I also tried some black fabric membrane, but the weeds seem to be perfectly happy underneath it, so I think I might have to double it up. It was from the pound shop so I'm not entirely surprised it lets some light through, though I am surprised at how well things are growng underneath.

I am also trying to break things up into beds so I don't get too demoralised looking at the massive task ahead. It also allows me to raise the beds up a little. No wood borders or anything, I'm not sure about the final layout, but hopefully it will help keep the veggies a little drier.

I'm hoping I can start to do a little in the evenings now that the clocks have changed, hopefully that will help me make a little progress during the week so I dont have to knacker myself too much at the weekends!

Cheers

[Nikkithefoot]

It took me 2 years to get on top of my plot. It was full of Ivy, Couch grass and bindweed.

Little and often is certainly the key. Clear and plant, clear and plant with regular hoeing really does make a difference.

Covering also will help, but the weeds need to be covered for extended periods of time (weeks to months). Initially they will put on a growth spurt, afterall you have covered them, made them warm and reduced light levels. They desperately try to grow more to survive. They then get exhausted and eventually die. The subsequent soil to dig is sooooooooooooo much easier, with few difficult roots to get out.

The most important thing is to take regular photos so you can look back in a few months and see how much work you have done. This will stop you getting disheartened during the initial clearing phase. I look back at my pics now and remember how I felt then. Now I love going to my plot. It is no longer a chore.

[MyAchingBack]

I agree with a little and often. My allotment is covered with couch grass and I was really starting to give up. A couple of fellow allotment keepers told me to just dig an area where I could start to grow the basics and to cover the rest with plastic sheeting. This I have done and when I am ready to dig another area I will remove the sheeting a dig a little bit more and so forth. Then before you know it Bobs your Uncle and you have an allotment full of lovely fresh crops.

[yorkiegal]

I'm in the same position. Lots of clay, although fortunately the previous tenant had already dug a drainage ditch down one side of the plot. Lots of dandelions and dead grass. Fortunately most of it covers some mounds of good soil from old raised beds (he's taken the wooden edging with him to his new plot). I've gone round most of the plot with a bottle of round-up today and will cover it all with tarp this week, leaving just a small patch at the end which I'm going to make a couple of raised beds with and start some planting.
We get free manure brought to the site each week, courtesy of the hard working horses who take tourists around York city centre every day, so I can use plenty of that. I scored some free lumber on freecycle today which I transported across town on my shiny new wheelbarrow, nearly taking out a few pedestrian's legs lol.

I've had so much conflicting advice from other plot holders already. One thinks raised beds cause far too much work whilst another swears by them. But it was great to get advice and meet new people and I also came away from it with 3 free pallets too. What a nice bunch allotmenters are.

[Yorkie]

Yorkiegal, if you've just applied roundup, don't cover with tarpaulin for a couple of weeks.  The plant needs to be growing for it to work.

[yorkiegal]

righto. thanks for that yorkie.

[gremlin]

I learnt with my soil just how critical the time of year is to digging.  All winter it is too wet and you cant get the soil off the tufts of dug up couch grass.  In summer it sets like concrete and I need a pickaxe to break the soil up...and then you cant get the soil off the weed roots without a hammer and the fine dust created blows away into the next county.

There are perhaps a perfect 3 weeks in spring and 3 weeks in autumn when it digs much more easily and the soil just crumbles off the roots so I do my heavy digging then.  March has been just right for digging up to now but my soil has just suddenly turned back to set concrete.

I know the answer is tons of manure - I'm trying to rectify the previous owner's 20 years policy of incinerate everything, compost nothing and never add any organic material in case it spreads disease.  Ah, the good old days.

[Daisysandbeans]

As you can't use spray at all I would advise covering as much as possible with black plastic/ tarpaulin and leaving it while you slowly clear other areas.  We did that when we got a plot and the bit we covered was very easy to clear after a few months of being covered.  It killed a lot of the perennial weeds so there was a lot less root to remove when we did dig it over.

[Andycorker]

I cut mine back and covered it with large cardoard which i got from lidl last January. I was worried at the time that  I was late doing it for the autumn planting. but I took it up last week and the weeds/grass was all but gone. it was very easy to dig and the roots pretty much disolved. Divide it up into small sections and it really is a joy to see the progress being made.