[Broccolihead]

Hello all. I hope you can give me some much needed advice please.
We finally gained out plot today after years on the waiting list. It is interesting as it is like a plot and a half, in an L shape. I have spent all day looking at how to tackle it from scratch and I am thinking of covering the whole lot with membrane and dealing with it as I go along in sections.
It is mostly grass covered, tangled and matted with weeds and we dont know if there is anything left growing underneath. I would say the length of grass is about 15 cm as it has been strimmed for us.
Is it advisable to cover it all and clear in manageable sections using a mattock, and then plant? I know it's a funny time of year to restart and I am thinking that it might take at least a year to get it ready.
Would covering now stop any further growth of weed and grass?
Thanking you all in advance. You might hear from me quite a bit until winter!
 

[Potty Plotty Lotty]

Well done on getting your new plot finally. As you say June is a funny time to start but if it's as wet as it is in this area of the country that will help in terms of weeding-I hate weeding when it's bone dry.

You can find lots of information here which I won't repeat:

http://www.allotment-garden.org/allotment-information/clearing-new-allotment/

Personally I wouldn't cover it until I've weeded it. I would dig rather than use a mattock-the grass may well be couch and you need to get every single root out.

Get some courgette seeds growing in pots now so you can plant them out as soon as you have space-you should get a harvest later in the year. Maybe sow some dwarf French beans, lettuces in the areas as you clear them. Even if the beans don't give you a harvest they will keep the weeds down and you can dig them into the soil as a green manure. Otherwise cover the area with cardboard or membrane immediately after clearing.

In September sow some field beans (similar to broad beans) and then some over wintered onions and some garlic a bit later in the year.

Plan out areas for fruit bushes and prepare the area so they can go in over the winter.

Hope that gives you some ideas. Remember to take photos regularly to see the progress you're making.

[ptarmigan]

Great advice above.  Digging will give you an idea of how good the soil is. I'd be tempted to mark out oaths and beds and cover up the bits that are going to be beds, cardboard is good and rots down to help.  Gave a look at seeds to sow now on this site or the Sarah Raven site as you could start some kale, cavilo Nero and chard at home to plant out when you've cleared a space and probably not too late to start leeks if you aren't looking for monster ones. You could also clear a bed and then cover ready to overwinter onions.

It's so heartening to see some stuff growing over the winter.

When I started I put the clods and weeds I dug up into old compost bags and let them tot down in an undusturbed corner for a couple of years to get lovely compost. 

Also have a look at lasagna gardening, a quick way of getting beds started.  It works really well. 

[Eblana]

Hi well done on getting a plot.  I got my plot 5 years ago this week, it was a bit of a scramble but I did get crops from it the first year.  I went up the first day and tidied up any rubbish (just piled it up at the front of the plot) and on my way home I stopped at the garden centre and stocked up on any seeds that said June/July sowing, compost and a pack of cheap module trays.  I got up early the next morning and sowed everything.  I had lettuce, scallions, spinach, cabbage, purple sprouting broc, kohlrabi, kale, pak Choi, corgettes, French beans and some parsley.  I also bought a couple of trays of plants that they had in the garden centre and potted these on into pots because they were getting a bit root bound.  That night I strimmed the plot back did a quick measure of it and went home and sat down with a pencil and paper and did a quick plan of roughly the layout I was going to have.  The following day I marked out about six beds and I covered the rest of the plot with heavy cardboard that a local shop gave me.  I then started digging.  I spent most nights and the weekend digging the six beds, I piled the weeds and stones that came out of them up at the front with the rubbish from the first night.  As I cleared the beds I put cardboard on them.  The first bed I had cleared, I chanced sowing some peas, carrots and beetroot in.  The rest of the beds were ready by mid/end July and everything in the modules were popped in then (I have since learned about rotation but for that year everything just went in together).   I then took a breather!!  I spent the next couple of weeks just weeding the six beds, strumming I between them and disposing of the rubbish pile and the weed and rock pile.  I had a weeks holidays in August so I took John's book and a pen and paper with me and sat working out what I was going to grow the following year and where it was going to go in the plot.  When I came back from holidays I marked the rest of the plot out, got my shed, built my compost bins and started digging beds for fruit and my over wintering onions and garlic.  As each bed was dug I covered it with the cardboard.  In the Autumn I popped my onion sets and garlic in and I also bought bare root fruit bushes which went in.

The only thing that I got nothing off were the peas as they got mildew and I didn't get much off the purple sprouting broc as it was in the wrong place and I had to pull it up the next year to make way for the crop that was going into that bed. 

My big bit of advice - don't overdo it.  Using the modules to start stuff off will buy you a good 3 to 4 weeks.

Good luck

[BabbyAnn]

Don't forget to clear and dig over/add well rotted manure to a bed now to plant garlic in October-December for lifting up about July the following year 

[Broccolihead]

Brilliant.! Thank you all so much for your advice. I am feeling more confident already.
I have ordered a couple of books from the site as well so I'm trying to arm myself with as much information as I can.
One more question. When digging grass, am I best to go down the depth of the spade head and remove, then weed?
Can I use these sods for compost?
Many thanks.

[BabbyAnn]

One more question. When digging grass, am I best to go down the depth of the spade head and remove, then weed?
Can I use these sods for compost?

it depends on the grass - an insidious type called Couch Grass sends out tough rhizomes to spread which survives composting (and even under total darkness for easily 2 or more years) and it spreads like wildfire (difficult to remove especially if it gets amongst perennial plants like fruit bushes and canes)  If it was ordinary grass or turf, then turning the sod over (grass face down) is an ideal way to compost grass.

[azubah]

Now is an ideal time to get an overgrown plot as you have plenty of time to get it ready for spring.

[juvenal]

Put those clods, upside down, into a neat cube on the edge of the plot. Build that cube up to 4 feet high, then cover, and forget it for a year or more. It will rot down, and can then be dug back into the plot.

[Tracybutton]

I think how you tackle it depends entirely on your fitness and personality. When we got ours three years ago it was full of hawthorn bushes and had never been used as a plot before.
I read how people said don't try to tackle too much at once, but we didn't take that advice and flogged ourselves to death for ten hours at a time at the weekends until we sorted it all at once.
It took us about six full weekends starting in July and by  September we had completely cleared it and put down four inches of horse manure over the whole site.
We planted fruit bushes, rhubarb etc in the Autumn and by the Spring we were off and that Summer we won the best allotment out of one hundred allotments in the town 

So my advice is do what you can/want or are able, because it is amazing what you can achieve in a short time with grim determination and hard work.

[steved]

Brilliant.! Thank you all so much for your advice. I am feeling more confident already.
I have ordered a couple of books from the site as well so I'm trying to arm myself with as much information as I can.
One more question. When digging grass, am I best to go down the depth of the spade head and remove, then weed?
Can I use these sods for compost?
Many thanks.

I would be wary about removing a spades depth of sod from all over the plot if i were you, many people on our site do this and because your plot will be lower than everyone elses, will become a nice water feature during the winter as everyone elses plot drains into it!
Much better IMO if youre happy with it is to strim it all down and glyphosate it whilst its still growing.

[Broccolihead]

Many thanks everybody for all your advice.
We are away this weekend but look forward to the planning and application of working our new plot next week.
I think we are looking at just getting it as ready as we can for next spring and developing a couple of beds on each section for some Autumn planting and maybe a couple of fruit bushes.
Your advice and help is invaluable. Thank you!

As an aside, Would it work to cover the plot so as to kill off grass and weed and dig in manageable sections?
I was thinking of leaving the majority covered until early next year and readying a couple of beds for now.
Would covering and leaving help with gradual progress?

[steved]

Would covering and leaving help with gradual progress?

Absolutely, but whatever you use to cover make sure its heavy or weighted down well, blocks all light and isnt carpet.
If theres a transport depot anywhere near you, the old curtain sides that often get discarded/replaced on HGV's are brilliant for this.