[gidster]

so after its been rotavated whats my next step?

[richyrich7]

Plan out your plot, fork over and remove any roots that you come across that kind of thing really.

You may be able to get in some broad beans, garlic or Japanese onions, if you get a patch nice and clear soon say before the middle of Dec'.

 Be prepared like I say to see new growth of weeds, pull them out or hoe them off before they get bigger than 3" after this height they are starting to add reserves to the roots before that they are drawing any reserves of energy so you make them weaker each time you hoe.

When the spring arrives and you get a lot of weed growth you could then spray with a glyphosate based weedkiller if you wish. No point spraying before as it works better and quicker when the plants are actively growing.

[peapod]

i just dont want to do the wrong thing and blow my whole growing veg experience.

There are disappointments in this veg growing malarkey,no doubt about it, but as long as you arm yourself with as much info as you can then you can be prepared for the upsets as well as the highs  

Paula

[DD.]

If you keep talking nicely to Rich, he'll come & do it for you in his spare time!

[richyrich7]

If you keep talking nicely to Rich, he'll come & do it for you in his spare time!

No problem I only have another 450 sy yds to dig  :roll:  DD. just PM'd me to say he'll come too btw.

[gidster]

yeah good idea....lol     instead of a wall paper stripping party i could have a ground digging one...lol.

cheers peeps.

[peapod]

yeah good idea....lol     instead of a wall paper stripping party i could have a ground digging one...lol.

cheers peeps.

Youd be surprised how many people volunteered for this for me......

UNTIL I got the lotty!

Then even free beer and a bacon butty didnt tempt em...lazy beggars

Paula

[gidster]

ive a few members of the family i may be able to call up on, but it will cost me in free veg.

just been reading the main page on starting up,it says i should spray it with roundup first before its rotavated, what do you reckon?

[growmore]

Spray it by all means but if  you are going to do that you really need to wait until it has started growing again - i.e. March!
 I'm now on my third plot, on the same site. Started off with a quarter, then got a half and in September I got promoted to a whole plot. 3 years!
Had to give the original ones up to get the bigger plots but I think its worth it . So have quite a bit of experience of new (and overgrown) plots to deal with. Starting to think the committee just want me to clear any unwanted plots!
 First two I just dug over. The new one i sprayed with glyposate and let it all die. I managed to rotovate about two thirds but the last third had lots of couch and bindweed and am doing it by hand. Weeds are now growing on the bits that have been dug but you can control them. Hoe them when they are young, as has been said, and you can keep the root system under control.
Dig over bits of it with a fork and see what the root system is like. If there are loads of roots, either big n white or binding the soil then don't rotovate and if you are 'really' organic don't use glyphosate otherwise go for it
Above all - Good Luck and enjoy

[gidster]

s0 first off i should have a dig about see whats what? then if its not to rooty let them rotavate it,once rotavated clear out the weeds left over by hand, then?...........can i grow stuff.?

theres lots of wood and stuff, ie. doors windows ,panes of glass. even thinking of doing away with the shed,its a bit of an eyesore.

[corynsboy]

Hang on to the junk for the time being.  Doors window panes and glass could be the remnants of an improvised a cold frame.   You'll be surprised what you can with a bit of junk.  Spare glass will come in very useful in the coming months for protecting seedlings etc.

I'd just stack it up against the side of the shed for the time being so it's out of the way of the rotivator.  Be careful if you have an allotment where things that are not nailed down go missing.

[gidster]

i see what you mean .

the shed needs clearing around it,as its been used as a dumping ground and theres brambles all around it.

had a crack today after work clearing the path down to the shed. enjoyed it, met my first allotment mate....lol

[gidster]

also i found out when i was there that it had been rotavated in the summer,does this change anything?

[corynsboy]

That's got to be good news.  It means that the weeds haven't been hanging around for a couple of seasons so the roots won't be too well established.

I'm of the opinion that nothing beats the personal touch of a man (or lady) and his/her spade when it comes to weeds.  The  rotivator will give you huge impact as you can do a lot in a short space of time. For me I'll take a spade and a couple of weekends every time.  

You are only looking to dig over the whole plot once.  Then as the seasons go along you divide the plot up into sections so you have much smaller jobs when it comes to weeding and digging.

[gidster]

hi, do you think i should cover it then, or just go for it and dig?