[mushroom]

Hi folks,

I'm about to hire a rotovator for use tomorrow or the day after. When I was onsite yesterday, I cut most of the grass and some of the brambles usind a petrol powered brush cutter (these are apparently the same that the councils use, according to the hire place). I had to do this to see if there was anything buried that needed removal prior to rotovating. (loads of buried plastic and some metal).

What I did find was, in places, some of the clumps of grass had grown into solid tufts about a foot across. Some of them are about a foot high. They are a fibrous solid mass. The (bladed) brush cutter could trim them but that's it. :shock:  I don't know what kind of grass makes this. The question is, do you think the rotovator will be able to cope? The hire shop calls the device a "power digger", goes to a rated depth of 200mm which is about 7 inches i think.

I'm hoping the rotovator action will help me level it all. The tufts are making it erm "hilly"  :shock: I guess the way to further level it from there on is with a rake?

[new_2_veg]

if it was me i would be tempted to dig as many out as you can with a fork or something, and the same with the bramble roots if you can, with rotovating the problem you get is roots being cut into 100's of bits so more and more grow thats just my opinion tho so please dont shout at me

nathan

[Aidy]

You are correct in many ways Nathan, however the rotovator will ease the process of clearing the ground, for me, rotovate then get the fork in to clear the ground, dont think the rotovator will do all your hard work, it wont as nathan points out, time spent clearing the ground now will be give you many good years rather than a constant battle with weeds, the rotovator works well if you can do it on a regular basis, I do mine every 2 weeks when the ground is clear.

[Oscar Too]

By all means rotovate, but spend as much time as you can with a fork digging out weed roots.  I have two plots - one was dug by fork several times, the other was only rotovated.  The difference in weed cover is astonishing - the hand-dug plot is heaps cleaner.

[Larry the lep]

hi mushroom

nice to see someone else from southend on here im down by somerfields rochford rd.

how did it go with the rotovating?

[WG.]

Take out the clumps with a mattock or azada.  As Aidy says, plan on rotovating several times.

[mushroom]

hi, not rotovated yet - this is tomorrow! Not sure how it will cope - though the device is 5.5 hp and it cuts to 7 inches, my plot has generations of weeds growing on a dead weed mass that is over a foot deep in places. That's 1 foot of rotting weeds before you hit soil. I think it will take several goes to break it all down. When new growth shoots, I'll glyphosate.

[Aidy]

If you have for the day keep going over and over, but dont sit back, get the fork in over the next few months, I wouldnt bother growing anything yet with this terrible weather, everything is rotting, so use the time to clear the ground best you can.

[shaun]

how did the machine handle it mushroom ?

[mushroom]

Machine was great. I'm knackered though Managed to get 1/2 approximately of my 5-rod plot done. It was hot and heavy work! If this is the easier option then I'm glad I didn't take the harder one

Found out today that the land I'm on has never, ever been cultivated *properly* and this is why there are weeds on weeds. 90% of it is couch grass. I went through a giant tuft that turned out to be greenhouse remains. Loads of buried fertilizer bags, smashed glass, twine, it went through it all. managed to fish out most of the glass. Heaps and heaps of roots. With all that rubbish to go through, the thing took off like a train and brought it all to the surface. Once rotovated, subsequent goings-through were a lot easier and it was better to steer. Dug about a foot in depth.

The other half of the plot has grass laid flat on grass laid flat on grass and digger wasn't really effective on it. if we get a dry day, I'll just hit it with glyphosate, and hopefully it will dry out and die.

The soil is fabulous though. Clay loam!

[shaun]

sounds like you enjoyed yourself

[mushroom]

this morning I ACHE  :shock: ow! Maybe less throttle next time eh  :roll:

[mushroom]

1st pic shows the plot as it was, 2nd one shows how it is now.

[David.]

That soil looks better than my heavy clay.

Good to see some grassy area left. Too many people dig the entire plot and forget to leave somewhere uncultivated for their shed, sitting around, etc.

[mushroom]

The dug cleared area marked with orange twine is for the shed, the ground to the right of it will be grass, a place to sit. To the right of that, a friendly neighbour gave me some cabbages, which I've transplanted and put under netting, next to the cabbages there are some seedlings I've xplanted into the ground and the rest into no.1 potting mixture in pots.

The cabbage patch isn't a permanent fixture. I just wanted something in the ground to keep my spirits up   What will go there at 8ft x 3ft is the herb garden. At the near border btwn the herb garden and the shed I'm going to put up a trellis and train scented flowers on it, something like stock or nicotana spp. The photos are looking in a westerly direction and the plot runs n>s. The bit that looks half dug will be the brassica bed. I have 1000s of purple sprouting broccoli to go in so that's the next thing, apart from the shed.