Allotments 4 All

Hi
I took over the lottie in August. I was relatively fortunate in that people had been using my plot as a carpark. The weeds are few and far between but I am worried about soil compaction. I tried digging a few weeks ago and the ground was very very hard. I was thinking of hiring a rotavator and then covering until next year, is this advisable or not, if not can anyone advise me ???

Poor you  :(  I'll let someone else answer this one  :)

My advice wuld be to get in touch with your council and tell them what it is like and if they would be kind enough to send someone down with a rotavator to rotavate your plot. The council should have large industrial rotavators that will rotavate any type of soil compacted or not.

The_Snail

the other thing you might want to be worried about is any soil contamination - cars do lose oil now and then. is there any evidence of this on your plot?

There's been some heavy rain since then - have you tried since with a garden fork? It would depend how long it's been used as a car park, as some perennial roots can lurk for quite a while and rotavation can chop them up.

Having said that I might well be tempted by a rotavator if it's concrete-hard; it's one prospect gently digging a plot over during the autumn to let the winter frosts do their work and quite another having to take a pick to the d**n thing just to see what weeds you've got.  :)

Assuming there is no oil, the councils normally offer a free spray and rotivation of plots for newcomers,. that should give you a good start. ??? ;D

Hi Bello and welcome.  :)

There are a number of options available to you.

If the council will rotovate it for you then that would be fantastic. Our council however would laugh if anyone suggested that to them!  :(

You don't say how big your plot is, this would have some bearing on how I would tackle it. I would be tempted to cover over maybe half of it and tackle half now, pehaps getting it ready in time to plant some broad beans and overwintering onion sets in november. Then, over the winter when those are growing nicely you could make a start on the other bit. If the ground is too hard to dig then I'd rotovate it. At least then you would be able to plant something and deal with the weeds as they came up, then give it a good dig over next year.

The other option of course is the Wardy no dig method  :D Wardy has written loads about this:
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/yabbse/index.php/topic,13263.0.html

Let us know how it goes, good luck!  :)

depending on how compacted it is you could try an overwintering green manure. the best one for breaking up heavy soil is Hungarian grazing rye.  but if it's really that bad even after rain i think rotovation's your best bet.

Hi
I would like thank you all for your advice ;D. I contacted the Council and they do not a rotavator :(, but they did give me a number for a local company where I can hire one. :D It finally looks like I can spend sometime gardening ;D I just hope that all goes well ???

I have a grass path which has been there for donkeys' years, and that's really hard to dig, it's like concrete. If your plot has been used as a car park for any length of time I think you definitely need a rotavator!

It's a daunting prospect.  Do it after a wet spell or you'll hurt yourself  :o  You'll have to break the surface so as you can sow a green manure.  Hope you get on all right.