As you can see from my 1st post, I am about to become the proud tenant of a half plot.
I am so pleased I have found this forum - it is jam packed with useful info and experience (could spend all the time on the PC and not digging!).
Thinking about what I need to do 1st when I get my key:-
- Build a Compost heap - plenty of pallets at the site entrance
- Clear the Ground - already picked up advice on here about not using a rotavator but cut the sods off and turn upside down on the compost heap
- Remove any rubbish
- Dig!
- Look to cover areas I won't use straight away once cleared
When I met the Colony Warden today he suggested that most people on the site did not use manure but an alternative (didn't pickup on what it was). Access for manure could be a problem anyway. What can I use instead ?
I'm sure I'll have more questions to follow ........
You can buy composted farmyard manure in 80 litre bags from garden centres. I wonder if that was the alternative to fresh stuff.
and don't forget to stop every once in a while to look at what you've accomplished ;D
Hi Kendy and welcome sounds like your pretty well organised, the only bit I would do different is when you cut off the clods of grass stack them upside down on top of each over in a corner and leave them to rot down. If you put them in the compost heap they may be too bulky to break down with your other compost, I left mine and forgot about them, last week I emptied five barrow loads back on to the soil, a bit fo grass and weed to pull out the rest had composted thats the way I did it any way, happy digging. ;D ;D ;D
That's a pretty level headed first post?
Yes, about the 'sods'!
Could be poultry manure (chicken manure pellets). Obtain from either allotment shop or B & Q ( do not always have but probably would at this time of year or very shortly I would imagine.
Thanks for replies. Will look into this.
Waiting for my key and ready to get started !
I don't agree about not using a rotovator. I suspect many who advocate this just haven't used one.
I started out rotovating my weed ridden plot and found that, as long as you rotovate fairly frequently, you soon kill off all weeds and the soil doesn't suffer. I've seen all the stuff about creating a "pan" underlying the top soil but I've never experienced anything like it. Also the "chopping the weeds up and getting 10 times more" isn't true. Yes, they come again but they are easy to pull or you just rotovate them again and "BANG" they're gone.
I do pile on stacks of muck every year and rotavate it in when it's rotted. My plot is fantastically productive and I don't have a bad back!
Rotovate - you know it makes sense.
Thanks for al the advice. I guess the ideal solution would be to remove the top layer of sods then rotavate the soil. Would presume you regular rotavators have petrol machines ?
Hi Kendy,
Good luck with the plot, an exciting time :)
I'm in agreement with Wasp_Box about rotovators. My plot was initially rotovated by the council, or should I say ploughed, from what had been fallow for years. The usual suspects were all dug in, couch grass, thistles, bind weed, etc.
I covered a lot of the plot with ground cover and I have a small rotovator, a Mantis tiller, which is one of the lightest petrol ones around I think. Anyway, after just over half a year, I removed the cover from that section and turned it over with the tiller. I have to say, there's been hardly any weed re-growth on that area and the soil is a dream. That's coming from a clay plot.
Could the alternative to manure you heard of be green manures? They're a great help when access to fresh isn't possible, we have the same trouble on our site. I plan to shove in some fish, blood and bone, some compost and green manures this year. There's a section on green manures in the wiki section of this site if you want to know more.
You'll have to post up some pics of your new plot! ;D
may be a bit late with this but keep in mind that there are two different aspects to manure -one is as a fertiliser- things like growmore,also chicken manure, seaweed (dried/extracted) in organic systems. But there's also the soil structure improvement and 'worm food' which these things dont give.
I use spent mushroom compost and green manures which do both ( but careful with the PH)probably not as well as manure but I dont have an easy supply. I'd ideally like to not use fertilisers but I think it takes time( and lots of compost!) for the soil condition to build up to the point where they're not needed.
Went to my local allotment shop yesterday and they have a product called sterilised manure. You only need a few ounces per Sq yard and a large bag covers 250sq yards.
Digging has commenced .....
Would like to know where to get some of that.
perhaps he meant green manure, as in growing crops such as mustard or ryegrass in sept/october then digging them in a couple of months later.
No, it was Groworganics Concentrated Sterilised Manure. Found a website for the products - http://www.groworganic.org/products.html (http://www.groworganic.org/products.html)
Sounds like the other allotmenters may be using green waste compost.