Got it!

Smudgeboy · « **Reply #15 on:** March 09, 2007, 16:03 »

Quote from: "greenbean"

Oh no, what have you done??? I use to have a life, perfect nails and lovely shoes NOT wellies covered in mud!

Fortunately I have none of these in the first place!

Trillium · « **Reply #16 on:** March 09, 2007, 16:52 »

Drat, I missed the pic of Munty's new do. Need a good laugh today

purplebat · « **Reply #17 on:** March 09, 2007, 19:25 »

Quote from: "wellingtons"

... I think he did ... but I'm devilled if I can recall which thread it was on ... although it did look remarkably like he hadn't much chopped off!

He'll be along in a bit, his speakers'll be burning ...

http://www.chat.allotment-garden.org/viewtopic.php?t=2719 heer you go

Gwiz · « **Reply #18 on:** March 09, 2007, 19:56 »

ive got a book somewhere around here about victorian oddities.
there is an old photograph of a bearded lady....................................
....... :?:

Trillium · « **Reply #19 on:** March 09, 2007, 22:47 »

thanks for trying Purplebat, but there's no actual pic of the wooly one himself, only wannabes

moz · « **Reply #20 on:** March 09, 2007, 22:56 »

Nice one smudgeboy,
I wondered what to do on my first day at the allotment, so I took a camera, a tape measure, pencil and paper. At least I could measure things up rather than just ponder !

If you get things cleared fast youre just in time for the big spring planting rush !

cheers

Smudgeboy · « **Reply #21 on:** March 12, 2007, 13:06 »

Well, Sunday was interesting!

First off, I was a little intimidated by the fact that previous owner (at least two years ago) had left a load of blackberry bushes to run riot - I have a serious amount of hacking to do with the loppers and the machete to gfet anywhere near ground level and see what's what. Looks like there's two types - the traditional wild ones and some cultivated ones, which have smaller thorns and purple leaves.

In amongst them are a large number of raspberry bushes that look in quite good condition.

Half the ground is just grass cover - although the grass is 6" high, it looks remarkable weed-free (considering the plot next to mine has Comfrey roots all over it) - however there are about five large rhubarb plants (seemingly randomly spaced) which I will have to dig out and move somewhere.

Met the old chap who owns two plots near mine and he said that the fruit trees provided them all with rich pickings in the past two years when no-one was around - I of course said that any spares would be offered around

He was also very free with advice and offers of help - in particular he has more than enough wood he was going to get rid of that he said I can take to make into a compost bin, so that's handy! His name is Doug - which of course reminded me of the joke "what do you call an allotmenter with a spade in his head . . . Doug"

Plans are two-fold:

1. Cut back the thorny fruity stuff HARD and get to ground level to see exactly what I'm up against - burn the cut-offs.

2. Trim the grass back to a razor-cut and then turf it out and dig over the soil (again, to see what I'm up against) - inlcuding getting those flippin' rhubarbs out.

Then see where I go from there.

Anyone got any advice?

Smudgeboy · « **Reply #22 on:** March 12, 2007, 14:00 »

Oh, almost forgot - can you hire petrol strimmers or lawn mowers. No leccy at the site and I don't really want to go at the grass on my knees with shears!

What do others do?

lucywil · « **Reply #23 on:** March 12, 2007, 14:14 »

you can hire strimmers, not sure about petrol lawn mowers though. we ended up buying a stimmer, you can buy one for about £70 and it's about £40 to £50 to hire one. although the ones you hire are a metal blade rather than strimmer line.

if your plot is big bear in mind that it will grow back pretty quick so it might just be worth clearing a section at a time.

Smudgeboy · « **Reply #24 on:** March 13, 2007, 12:38 »

Been doing some more thunking around the grass, and my plan is thus:

Cut grass back hard

"Turf out" top 4 inches or so

Pile turfed out stuff to one side, grass side down and cover with carpet to mulch down

Dig out/turn over the cleared area to about a spade's depth

Fork it over to break it up

Plant some spuds

Have I missed anything? Composting? Manuring? Rotivating?

What else (if anything) can I plant at this time?

WG. · « **Reply #25 on:** March 13, 2007, 12:40 »

If you layer the turf with manure, you'll get some lovely fertile loam as a reward for your hard work

Smudgeboy · « **Reply #26 on:** March 14, 2007, 13:12 »

Quote from: "whisky_golf"

If you layer the turf with manure, you'll get some lovely fertile loam as a reward for your hard work

So just pile up the turf (grass side down) and cover in manure, right?

Or do you mean put a layer of manure between each layer of turf?

WG. · « **Reply #27 on:** March 14, 2007, 13:16 »

Pile up the turf (grass side down) and put a layer of manure between each layer of turf. Exact ratios are unimportant but cover to exclude all light from top and sides of heap.

Smudgeboy · « **Reply #28 on:** March 19, 2007, 10:34 »

Well, finally got out on to the plot Sunday morning, and went after one of the patches of thorny stuff with a machete and loppers.

The machete was OK for the raspberries, them being a little woody, but the brambly/blackberry stuff was far too bouncy - wasn't too keen on the machete bouncing back towards 'ma heed' at speed - so used the loppers for those.

My oh my, how those things take over!

However, after a good two hours of frenzied activity (time was tight, Muvva's day and all that) I had cleared one whole end (and made a pile for burning at least 5ft high!).

I also started to cut back some of the really high grass clumps that had grown around them.

So, today's question: I now have an area about 5m by 5m which I want to turn into this year's veg plot - it's currently covered in grasses of many types.

A couple of chaps at the site confirmed Whisky's advice to turf the top layer off and suggested hiring a turfer as the grass is pretty high and thick.

However, two things worry me - there are at least four rhubarb plants hidden around under the grassm (perhaps more) and, of course, the main stems and roots of the blackberries and raspberries I cut back yesterday.

Also, the ground is VERY uneven.

Will a turfer cope with this, or will I have to go digging around to get all the plants/roots out first - ending up with loads of foot-deep pot-holes?

WG. · « **Reply #29 on:** March 19, 2007, 10:45 »

Good work SB.

I should point out that the turf'n'stack posting I made was in direct response to someone who asked how to do it. You do get a "loam bonanza" but it is more work than trench digging, or repeated rotovation.

More significantly, if you plan to plant potatoes, have a good read through the eelworm-avoidance techniques on other threads.

Got it!

Trillium

Gwiz

Trillium

WG.

WG.

WG.