[LadyGreens]

Hi all,
On this very wet day  am seeking advice on my new grass and weed covered 150sq feet plot! Its all clay soil which I understand will be jolly hard work!! I was thinking of doing some raised beds around 7ft x 4 ft with walk areas covered with bark chips and plastic. I will use gypsum to break up the clay soil in the beds. How realistic am I being as I want to keeps costs down and was hoping to get some winter veg in soon!!
Any advice or anyone with some free time to give me a helping hand to get started are all welcome. I have a plot in Ruislip 

[surbie100]

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Congrats on getting your plot - I got something similar last year, but sq metres not feet. Not thinking that you have to tackle it all in one go helps, I'm only 50% through my setting up, which keeps me in line with my tenancy agreement and means I'm not fed up with the whole thing. Clay is great for holding on to water in dry months, so it's not bad news.

I'd get the first 1 or 2 beds marked out and dug over - you don't need to set up raised beds first, and that gives you some space to put winter crops in and breathing space to think through what you want to grow and how you want it organised over autumn/winter.

You'll also get a feel for other things, like the sun line, prevailing wind and any drainage issues. Can your new neighbours give you any help on growing conditions? That's usually more use than someone helicoptering in.

Good luck with it! And remember, we want to see pictures!

[mumofstig]

Welcome to the site 
It's cheapest just to dig beds, not to put in raised ones.
Perhaps you have a free source of wood, though. 

Just mark out the areas for beds with sticks and twine, so you know where to walk and where the paths are

I had clay on my first allotment and it was hard going at first, but once it's dug it's good soil. I'd rather have clay than the sandy stuff I have on my present plot 

[snow white]

I have clay soil and was in your position back in november.   I marked out my plot with wood (kindling) and string.   I had devided my plot into permanent beds for strawberries, artichokes, asparagus, current bush and two flower beds.  Plus I marked out   the area where my poly tunnel, shed and compost bins were going.   Knowing that I was going to rotate my crops I devived the rest up into a central path with two beds either side measuring 5.2m x 6.6m.   I decided   what was going in each bed and prepared accordingly.  My bean bed was liberally covered in horse muck and forked over into big clumps (remember clay soil here!).  when it had dried out a bit and then rained on again, I managed to bash the lumps down into managable soil.  Broad beans then planted under squash bottles cut in half.  I devided the bed up again into 1.2m (ish) wide beds by putting a heavy  duty black woven membrane down and pegging it in.  Then I top dressed it with mushroom compost which has kept the soil fairly friable.  I ran out of time and energy for the potato bed so just put a load of cow manure down, then the potatoes, then straw - which has worked better than I hoped.   Just managed to dig over and add compost to the carrot and root bed, then lots of bashing down as it dried and got wet again.  Then again ran out of time   and energy for the brassica bed.  I had already weeded by hand so all I did was cover in mushroom   compost and grass cuttings and plant through it.   I have added blood, fish and bone and also  chicken manure pellets to every thing, but this years crop was wonderful.  So  what you can't do properly through lack of time/energy - CHEAT.!

[Goosegirl]

So am with you there as it sounds just like my designated veg plot when we bought an acre of field to use for sheep, hens and geese. I needed raised beds as there was only 4-6" topsoil over a "pan" of consolidated alluvial silt that the tractor didn't reach when rotovating. I sat on my butt and used my feet to shove a sharp spade in horizontally to hand-cut the turf off from my 6 beds, then dug trenches below this pan, wiggled a fork in the bottom and added manure, grit, etc, then back-filled with the topsoil from the next "trench to be." Gypsum is a great idea as it binds the tiny clay particles to aid drainage. Clay retains nutrients well, but can also be acidic so I would recommend one of those simple pH tests (not a meter) so you can determine this. If it is acidic, kinda good because you will need the addition of lime, which will also act like Gypsum. As for keeping costs down, a nice local farmer may give you some of the black plastic they use for silage, or cut farm feed or compost bags into lengths. Bark chips - ask your council or goggle your local tree surgeon who will probably have loads to share. Whatever you decide, be prepared for possible drainage problems, wireworm in your pots if the land was previously farmland/grass or similar, backaches, headaches, a glut or two, and the best-tasting produce you can get, plus it's all your own work. You've got lots of good advice on here already, so please take your time and ask whatever you want whenever. We were all newbies once.  :happy:

[Kleftiwallah]

Spent mushroom compost is what you need.   Cheers,   Tony.

[mumofstig]

Have you looked at the price of spent mushroom compost lately, Klefti? 

[LadyGreens]

Wow lots of food for thought!! Thanks guys. Surbie100 I think you are correct getting one or two beds prepared first...I think I was just overestimating what I can do!! I shall definitely post pics before I start and as I go. Do I post pics to this thread??
Mumofstig , sticks and twine definitely seems cheaper than wood!!! My vision of my plot maybe wasn't so realistic haha.
Snow White wow! You did some super planning and I will now do the same. Thankyou.
goose girl I didn't think about the drainage at all if I had plastic down so I probably won't do that now but thanks for the advice on finding a farmer who will maybe let me have a few bits.

Thanks so much for all the advice. I have my measure tape pen paper at the ready and will start drawing up realistic plans!!

[snow white]

be prepared to change your mind several times, then again when you translate any drawings to the plot, then again in a years time as experience shows you what works.   This year I  am making the beds only a metre wide as 1.2 m was a little bit too wide..  You need to reach across to the centre comfotably or back ache ensues   
It will be the last thing you think of at night.  And that first meal on your plate is wonderful - welcome to allotment fever. :blink:

[Robster]

I had a very similar experience.  I took half a plot of very compacted weed covered ground.  I divided it up with orange string and sticks and did it a bit at a time.  Two years on all the beds are marked out and cultivated.  Beds just mean that at the end of the day or session you can walk away with a sense of achievement and dont get daunted.  Plus all of the other great benefits.  Now concentrating on soil improvement with as much organic matter as I can find.  Good luck

[AnnieB]

In effect dig in anything you can. I have dug in just about every sort of thing that turned up. Standard compost was the most common, but also chipped bark, composted bark, shredded leaves (Autumn is coming), manure, assorted mulches they all have gone in.

A raised bed isn't a bad idea, it gives a defined space for you to attack. The edging costs and you need fairly substantial edging if possible, on a narrower thickness of wood gravel board is fairly good.

I know you said keeping costs down and there may be less costly but 3 or 4 gravel boards for the bed edging then search out a garden centre that does 5 bags for £16 (one around here is doing this) and get 2 bags of manure and 3 of compost and empty the lot on, mix well and rack flat. After that it is a case of digging it in either a little or a lot. At first I would say dig in lightly.

Would give a sort of instant bed for you to put something into.

If you have a lawn at home collect the grasss cuttings, throw these on to the bed (assuming no veg in it) and let them break down, doesn't need to be composted. A plastic tub that fits nicley in a car is good and grass cuttings are not heavy, don't forget the autumn leaves as said earlier.

[Goosegirl]

goose girl I didn't think about the drainage at all if I had plastic down so I probably won't do that now but thanks for the advice on finding a farmer who will maybe let me have a few bits.

Sorry if I didn't make it clear. The plastic is meant for putting on your walkways to be covered with woodchips.

[Aunt Sally]

I'd rather have clay than the sandy stuff I have on my present plot 

Oh yes, clay makes a much better base to work on than sandy soil. 

Adding gypsum is a good idea and as much organic material as you can lay your hands on.  Make sure the soil below the first spit is broken up too or you may have a water logging problem.

[ConfusedGardener]

I use to think gypsum was the best amendment for a heavy clay soil, but then I came across this PDF.

I would say just add lots of organic matter.

[wasthiswise]

Hi - I started out with a plot in a similar state. Pretty heavy clay, and ours hadnt been used for several years prior and was basically in wild field state with loads of weeds up to 5ft high and grass like stuff. Oh and nice things like rotting carpet and other such junk.
We took it on in October 2010. It was pretty depressing before starting and I did begin to question my sanity in doing this. My kids looked at me in a strange way when I first showed them. First step was to clear the junk. Found out the bits of carpet were a blessing in disguise because whilst removing it was a fairly disgusting task, underneath was relatively weed free.
Next took a strimmer to all the weeds hacking them off to around 4" above ground; carted them off and we had a great bonfire. Then I paid some bloke who has a small plough £20 or so to plough it over roughly.
Then we left it in that state over winter.

In March we set to clearing it strip by strip. We'd do maybe a 3ft strip on each visit by digging it over with a fork and removing by hand as much weed related stuff as possible, and especially trying to remove all the roots of everything we could find.
This was really laborious and slow going but worth it. After about 15 visits or so it had been entirely cleared. We also planted things as we went.
This was fairly successful though we still had major weed problems later but that was my fault for failing to hoe anything like as often as I (now realise I) needed to.

In the autumn we bought a huge heap of cattle manure and liberally spread it around. Now its a couple of years on its looking in good shape, weeds under control and lots of stuff growing well, mainly soft fruit. And not a single weedkiller used.