[rookie1]

Good morning allotment-nauts. Bit of a dilemma. As per, I neglected to keep the grass down around my veg patch and despite clearing ALL the grass and weeds for this year's growing season, it's now covered again, as I don't grow any winter veg. Do I clear it all again now, cover it with some rotted manure or perhaps with some weed suppressant fabric so that I don't have to do it in spring, or am I just creating work for no real benefit? 

[Kristen]

I would cover it.  I reckon manure on its own might sprout, but at least that would be a start.  My ideal would be manure first, then something light-proof, like weed suppressing fabric, but its expensive (for the area of a whole plot) if you don't already have some.

I have raised beds and have now moved to having "pieces" of weed suppressing fabric, the width of the beds, reserved for each crop - so already has holes in the right places etc.  They get moved around the plot, in late autumn, ready for the next crop rotation.

[rookie1]

Hi Kristen

Thanks for your reply. So I can put manure on top of the grass and weeds, rather than clearing that lot first?

[Kristen]

Yes. The weeds will grow through, and the manure will likely have some weeds seeds in it too. The worms will pull some/much of the manure into the ground over winter, the rest will become more friable and be easier to incorporate in the spring (or just pull a bit to one side and "plant through" it).

A covering (e.g. weed suppressing membrane) will mean they weeds don't get light, they will germinate / grow and exhaust themselves - although I expect that pernicious weeds will still be able to grow, come the spring, but at the least it will have been weakened by the time you take the cover off in spring. You do need to THEN clear the weeds off, otherwise all that growth will promptly turn green and get cracking

Roots don't like fresh manure (it makes them fork), so you might not want to do this on areas that you plan to grow Carrots / Parsnips, but personally I would do the lot

[beesrus]

It depends what sort of soil you have. In any case, between now and the Spring you will still have to dig out your perennial weeds/grasses.
One plus of just covering it now are that useful organic matter from the annual easy peasy weeds will also be incorporated into the soil along with manure.
One minus could be that your soil is a lot more difficult to dig in the Spring when we've had a whole Winter of rain and pestilence. At least by digging it now in this coming dry period, you will be ahead of the game should you not be able to get on your plot early enough due to waterlogging etc. The soil will also then be more compacted.

How about halfy halfy, and see what suits your particular plot and sensibilities for future seasons.. That's what I did many moons ago on a new plot. If you dual run the two methods, you can use the beds that are dug over now as your brassica beds, saving disturbing them too much in the Spring.

[MickyB]

I was always led to believe that digging and turning the soil over at this time of year exposes the roots of the weeds to the harsh winter weather thus killing some of it off whilst also adding nutrients to the soil as it rots down - this is what the 'old hands' on my allotment tell me anyhow.

[m1ckz]

mine is all dug   mucked an covered   fingers  crossed

[rookie1]

Thanks all. Might try the Halfy-Halfy. Given the time of the year, clearing the whole plot might be a bit optimistic.   

[Kristen]

I used to Dig but now I am No-Dig - although that's a bit of a myth to my way of thinking.  I definitely dig when I harvest Spuds and Parsnips. I expect I could just "lift" them, but I then need to straighten-up the soil so what I actually do is to dig & sort out at that time.

Then there is the area where I sow Carrots.  I loosen that up well, and incorporated plenty of material (heavy clay here) otherwise I get Carrot shapes only suitable for a Weird Veg competition.

Rest of the time I just chuck a generous layer of muck on the top, over winter, and don't do any cultivations.  I raise almost everything in containers and plant out - clay soil is late to be ready / dry enough for planting in the Spring, and the good days seldom coincides with spare time at weekends, plus it enables me to make and early start and I can Sow & Prick Out etc. evenings / after dark in late Winter / Spring.  I use a long-handled bulb planter - Make holes, Stick plants in, Done - thus no cultivation needed.  I used to hoe the weeds off the surface before planting - another advantage of planting plants out, rather than sowing seeds, the plants have a month's head start over any weeds that then germinate, but now I plant [almost] everything through weed suppressing membrane, so there are no weeds when I plant out, and none during the lifetime of the crop either - reducing irrigation demands too.

"Minimal dig / cultivation" might be a better description

[pigguns]

I lob cardboard on top of anything that I don't like the look of.  Muck on top and cover, rotate or dig it all in, in the spring. 
The carbon with the weeds=lazy compost 

[3759allen]

personally i would dig the weeds out, use manure as mulch and cover.

digging in this weather won't do the worm population any good. but there isn't a lot to do at this time of year, come spring there's always so much to do

if your having trouble controlling the weeds it would be better to invest the time and/ or money in covering as much ground as you can. the cheap ways are cardboard and carpet (some don't like carpet but i find the felt backed stuff works well). take time to cover around all your crops when you plant them to keep the maintenance down for the rest of the season. 

[Christine]

The only problem with covering is that it creates conditions suitable for the slugs to survive the winter.

[cadalot]

Pop bottles with inverted tops loaded with blue pellets of death are placed under the weed membrane that is covering the beds, to kill as many of the little darlings as possible before next year. Once they pop in they find it really difficult to get out again, eat blue pellets of death and die.

Once the pop bottle is full of little sluggy bodies the whole thing is chucked away.

[BabbyAnn]

Pop bottles with inverted tops loaded with blue pellets of death are placed under the weed membrane that is covering the beds, to kill as many of the little darlings as possible before next year. Once they pop in they find it really difficult to get out again, eat blue pellets of death and die.

Once the pop bottle is full of little sluggy bodies the whole thing is chucked away.

that's a clever idea which I might use    At least it keeps the pellets dry and out of harms way too