[Nessie_dog]

Hello I am about to start preparing my allotment it is 6x4 m and we have ripped out the edging boards that surrounded 4 square beds tried to dig the earth and its totally rock hard. Not afraid of hard work but is this where I should hire a rotovator? Any advice welcome. Also lots of wood chip used on the paths which we've raked up is it best  to remove this? Or dig it in?

Many thanks for reading

[Sparkyrog]

Hello and welcome  dig the wood chip in if thats your choice it will feed the soil slowly ! without knowing your location we can't really advise  as times are different ! you have the option to add location in your profile 

[Fairy Plotmother]

Hello and welcome. Dig a bit at a time is the best bet for me.

[adal]

a big hello and welcome to the site

[sunshineband]

As the ground gets more rain, it will become easier to dig, and little and often is the way to go 

Woodchip does make a decent path covering, with weed proof membrane underneath, so is it salvageable? If it is almost rotted down then digging it in should be fine

[J_B]

mark out your final plan on the 6x4 then start digging little and often as advise...thats the best way to go about it...once u mark it u then know what u need to do....have fun and most importanly enjoy yourself

[Rampant_Weasel]

a rotavator will skid over the top you have to rough dig it first, the frost will rotavate for you 

[3759allen]

rotavating is not the way to go, it will just drag you and the machine along rather than dig down.

if you aren't planning to plant anything until next season i would pull any weeds up by hand and cover with some sort of manure or mulch, then let the worms do all the hard work for you.

[al78]

I would get a fork and try to loosely break up the ground into clods, then cover it with something and leave it over winter and let the frosts break the clods down. This is what I am doing on a section of my plot which has the same problem of rock hard ground which I broke up by standing on the fork and wiggling from side to side to get the fork into the ground, then use the fork as a lever to break up the soil.

[Lisbon67]

If you're not planning to grow on it all over the winter, you could plant some field beans as green manure - their deep roots are great at breaking up a hard pan (as well as adding nitrogen)

[allotmentor]

As @sunshineband alluded to, just be careful adding a lot of woodchip, unless it is nearly rotted through as, if they're not, although they will eventually provide some good organic matter, until they have broken down they can suck nitrogen out of the soil - this is grabbed by the microbes that get over-excited by having so much new 'woody' carbon-rich material to feast on. If they are still fairly fresh, and you don't want to use them on paths, they can be usefully added to the compost heap to counter-balance nitrogen-rich material such as grass cuttings.

[strangerachael]

I found using a mattock was really good for breaking up hard ground.