Hi. Me again. Which is the best way to go about digging our new plot? It's full of couch grass, mares tail & bindweed. OH dug a trench & we put that soil in the compost bin to sort out later. He is now digging rows & I am forking through them as he goes along taking out weeds. Is there a better way of doing it & at what point do we add manure. Also we want to grow carrots, how long after manuring can they be sown.
Janet.
That sounds as good a way as any Janet. Expect to have to go through it all again to get the little bits out when they start to regrow. Carrots I'd leave two years after manure. Add manure after you have dug it, on the surface at this time the worms will pull it in. :)
I would dig it as you are doing but without wasting time with the forking. Just lump it over and leave the weather to do something useful, then fork it shortly before sowing or planting time.
As an aside, I once planted a large block of sunflowers on a heavily couch infested plot and the grass completely died except at the edges. They looked very pretty.
I agree with Saddad but, I would dig the manure in.
Here's the way I did mine. Two plots, each 17x165 foot with a path right up the middle.
I marked out a bed the width of a plot which worked out 16x5 foot. Dug and completely cleared that ready for planting. Left a path, marked out another 5 foot bed. Dug and completely cleared that ready for planting and so on until I reached the end. Then I did the same to the next plot until I had two plots full of 16x5 foot beds.
Never did I look and despair at what was left to do, only looked and took pride in what I had completed ready for planting. It's surprising how quick it gets done... Forgot to say, first thing I did was put my shed up before I did anything else ;D
If you look at my gallery you'll see my before and after photo's.
Thanks everyone for your ideas. We shall have to think which way to go. Tony did you manure as you went along? We can't decide about manurin from sheds dg as the person who showed us the plot said he thought 1/2 of it had been done as there were some forked parsnips in the ground. It's only 1/2 a plot so your way would be an easy way of going about it. We have seen a very small shed for £80 from shedsdirect. It will hold our tools but that is it.
At what point did you start planting?
Janet.
Does it do anything for bindweed though?
:-\