[Lady Lottie]

I've recently acquired a plot on a badly overgrown site - have so far tackled the 5ft tall brambles and bindweed (as in attacked them with a brush cutter), dug out the mattress innards, made a pile of countless housebricks, removed a bag of raw chicken  and given back the bowling secretary next door two bowls! 

So far it has been fun, this weekend the skip arrives and we can move all the heaps of cut weeds and rubbish.  I made a deal with the council that if I cleared the site I could have a plot - ended up clearing the WHOLE site for them - no point being surrounded by weeds I supposed....the whole site is only 4 plots so vee compact and bijous really!

I do have a question though for all you experienced people on here please, if  you could proffer some advice.

The bowling secretary has offered me some turf and top soil from the green - they are doing some sort of maintenance which will result in surplus quantities of both.  At first I said "Yes, great!  I'll have it!"  I'm keen to cement a good relationship with the bowling club as I think they have had "words" with allotmenteers of old over bonfires and such.  Trouble is, I want to garden organically if at all poss and it occurred to me this morning (after my rash decision) I haven't got a clue what they will have treated the grass/soil with!  I doubt very much if it whatever it was would have been organic - but I thought oh well, I'll spread it around the other redundant plots that I have cleared to suppress weeds before I put the black plastic down.  But THEN I thought what if it contains things that aren't safe to grow edibles in!  How long will it take to "disappear" from the soil!  I have asked him to find out the "ingredients" in whatever brew they have used.  Feel like I'm making a right pig's ear out of things before I even get started!   And I really didn't want to annoy the Bowling Club - they've offered me they're grass clippings and fallen leaves too.......would the treated clippings be okay to compost regardless of what the grass has been treated with..? 

Oh what a 'narna...so far I've had to deal with 2 lots of hostile neighbours though have managed to "make friends" with them and I really don't want to annoy the bowling club...I know they just want an easy way to get rid of their waste at no cost to them...but even so - i just want peace and harmony - but organically! lol 

Any thoughts or advice from anyone much appreciated.



before....

[Lady Lottie]

the orange blob is me...

[Lady Lottie]

Ahh...one pic at a time is best then...think I've finally sussed it!!  Thank you for the advice Celtic Eagle - now you can REALLY see what I've taken on!! lol  I think I will do as you suggest and just pile up the bowling green stuff and leave it - for a LONG time. 

[Lady Lottie]

...after lots of brush cutting and raking...

[Lady Lottie]

Now we just need to get rid of the piles of rubbish...assuming they are still there and nobody decided to set fire to them!   which is worrying me as I haven't been up there for over a week - eek!

The skip is arriving 9.30am tomorrow - hopefully it won't take too long to fill it!

[Lady Lottie]

Me and my new best friend.

[Lady Lottie]

The piles of rubbish are where my patch will be - hopefully...

[Lady Lottie]

A view of the whole sorry scruffy site!  Bless it....its a shame....

[poultrygeist]

Wow!!

You should get a civic award for that lot.

The wall looks nice for fruit growing unless it faces north. Keep it up.

Rob

[Lady Lottie]

Thank you for shifting my thread ....Rob

For those of you who aren't Rob.  I am a clueless allotmenteer with a plot that has been ravaged by bindweed, brambles and lord knows what else.  I am starting from scratch.  Please feel free to throw you twopenneth in - I need all the help and advice I can get!  Thank you!

[corynsboy]

Stirling effort.

It strikes me that the whole area needs digging and clearing of roots.  Now that you've cleared it can you get help from the council to come in and level it and dig out the brambles etc?  Otherwise in a few weeks all your hard work will be undone and you'll spend all your time cutting brambles and no time growing veg.

You've done so much, but now would be a good time to send in the troops.  If the council won't help, you could buy some beer wine and soft drinks, some sausages and some buns.  Arrange a gardening party in early April when it's been dry for a bit.  Invite friends and family and their kids.  They dig, you feed them. 

Have a plan and some pictures before you start.  Spend a bit of time working on one area before hand so that your party guests can get a feel for what you want the place to look like.  Split the jobs up into small areas.  Have them work in the areas that are important to you.

Great job.   

[Lady Lottie]

Thanks Corynsboy.  The council are "helping" me...ahem.... :blink:by providing enough black plastic to cover the whole site.  I thought I would be cheeky when they asked me how much I wanted!  Well, as you say, I will be fighting with brambles again in no time if SOMETHING isn't done to the rest of the site - that's really why I ended up clearing the whole place even though I only want one plot.  And I had a little bit of leverage seeing as I did a massive amount of work FOR them!

My idea so far, is cover the lot and start thoroughly weeding my plot one strip at a time so that there is a possibility of being able to grow something this year and also so that I don't lose heart!

My family all live oop north so they won't be much use -  other than that I have my MIL, hubby and my 3 year old daughter who cannot wait to "grow fings and water dem" and 2 friends who think I am crazy for taking it on!  So I'm pretty much all on me owwwwnnnnnn really -    and no other plot takers so far either. 

Pity the Cub Scouts don't still do bob a job week really ....lol

[woodburner]

Well done!!

My idea so far, is cover the lot and start thoroughly weeding my plot one strip at a time so that there is a possibility of being able to grow something this year and also so that I don't lose heart!

Good plan. 
I've found that the best way to dig out brambles is simply to methodically double dig the  area, rather than trying to tackle them one by one, (like you would dig up shrubs for replanting). A pair of loppers is handy for cutting through the really deep roots, and will probably save you a lot of bending down later on, when the brambles start regrowing on the undug areas. (I'm pretty sure the plastic won't stop them straight away)
Double digging may seem like hard work, (well it is actually ) but there are bonuses. Digging that way means that when you've dug up the brambles you have a very nicely dug plot, rather than lots of holes and heaps of soil that needs to be dug over again, it also helps avoid mixing the subsoil with the topsoil. Another bonus of brambles that have been around as long as 'yours' is that there won't be much at all in the way of couch grass, bindweed and the like, so the rest of the clearing will be quicker and less troublesome than if it had been rough grass.  On the patch that I had it seemed like there was less weed seed than normal too.

[Lady Lottie]

Thank you Woodburner - that sounds like a logical way to begin things - and I DO need logic pointing out to me as it tends to slip by me most of the time ...the penny usually drops later on at some point and whilst I do need the exercise there is no point killing myself is there?  (as well as being all unorganised which is me all over...    Anyway!!

Part of me is dreading sticking the first fork or spade on to be honest in case I can't get it any further than an inch deep because of all the weeds and roots!   And I do have a bindweed problem as well.  There are grassy bits - but thankfully my area doesn't seem too bad - there are some whopping great, knotty, bushy lumps of grass growing in other parts - is that the couch grass everybody seems to hate?  Its very dense.

In the summer when I first viewed the plot, it was just a see of fresh green leaves and vines and white and pink flowers bobbing in the breeze.....lurvely...the dead creepers are everywhere - all entwined in the wire mesh fence and I pulled loads out of the perimeter trees.  Will double digging be enough to make a dent in the bindweed as well do you think?  I know they are renowned for very long roots.  A previous plot owner (he used to have the plot ear marked for myself actually) came out for a moan ... ...but then I made friends with him...and he was going on about digging for England to try and keep the bindweed under control

[poultrygeist]

We have bindweed all over our garden. I think they don't like recently cultivated soil so you may win eventually.
We also have bryony which grows from very large (6"+dia) and very deep (12"+ to 24+"?) tubers. Those are a problem.

I have some systemic weedkiller but obviously you can't go that route. 

Rob