Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Axel2801 on December 20, 2018, 04:39
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I have just taken over a 10 rod allotment that has not been used for at least a year. The earth is thick with bindweed and couch grass.
Where do I start ? :wacko: :wacko:
Please give me advice ::) ::)
Axel2801
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Congrats, sounds like quite a big plot Axel2801!
Those two weeds are pretty hardcore so you have 3 options;
The hard way: dig it all out.
The easier way: look at 'no-dig' which involves smothering the weeds rather than digging out.
The non-organic way: spray with chemicals.
It depends on how long you're giving yourself, how fit you are and how easily you can source things like compost (for no-dig). Personally I'd do the digging out but a plot that size and the current weather conditions may mean you only free say half of it up for growing by next March. There are a lot of forumites here who use the no-dig method who may be able to advise on that front. The spraying way might not be feasible at this time of year when it's so wet but again, I'm no expert here.
Whatever you decide, good luck and check in here for advice and tips!
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There is some excellent advice on this very site:
Clearing a New Allotment or Vegetable Plot (http://www.allotment-garden.org/allotment-information/clearing-new-allotment/)
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Welcome. Good luck which ever way you decide to go. Whatever you do, do it slow and steady.
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I only tell people what I would do in that situation when we took on more allotments that hadn't been cultivated for a couple of years we had couch grass bindweed and others we took over the allotments in October of that year all we did was tidy up remove all the old rubbish that had been left
had a load of manure delivered to use half one year and to save the other half for next year
then come spring we sprayed the allotment with roundup only once mind then after three weeks we ploughed the ground and then cultivated it we set half of it with potatoes the other half we grew brassicas and othere veg with a good helping of cattle manure we had good results but on hindsight we should have done a soil test but hay hoe that came later and all be it the lack of sulphur was flagged up in the test
anyway that's what we done and it saved us a lot of time and hard work but everyone to there own good luck with your new allotment what ever you decide ;)
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Hi there
I was recently in your shoes and had a new allotment of a 1/4 acre. I tried the pulling out of weeds and digging over by hand and did this for a year. It was very hard work and thought to myself this is too much work for one person.
I have now gone down the no dig route of smothering weeds with compost or well rotted cattle muck. Where it used to take maybe 2 hrs to dig one of the beds over by hand it now only takes 1/2 hr to spread compost over the bed and then leave well alone. You might get the odd hardcore weed come up but it’s easily felt with. Weeding takes less time also so a win win.
Hope this helps
Alex