Allotments 4 All

Help, just got my first plot on a very unloved allotment. My lottie was until yesterday over 5ft tall in nettles, thankfully no brambles. hired an industrial stimmer. Loved the power!!! My allotment now looks like a crop circle in the middle of overgrown plots surrounding me. Will be gathering the huge amount of weeds up later today. What do I do with them now? then comes the big question - Do I rotavate or dig to clear the roots? little lady with little arms! Was very excited but now feel daunted by the size of the plot and the work ahead just to get it ready for planting. The allotment has not been used for over a year. The soil looks in good condition (the bits I can see). What veg can I start planting now.

personally, i would dig and cover a bit at a time. take your time and do it thoroughly and plant a few things too to keep up your morale (its going to be tough for a few months while you get it into shape.  if you rotovate you will chop up all the perrenial weed roots and that will multiply them a lot. there are people who will say its ok to rotovate though so you will have to take what advice sounds right for you. you will have lovely strong arms by the time you finish and will be able to beat all the lads at arm wrestling and you will have a less weedy patch (not going to promise weed free - that woud be too much to hope for !).  i would concentrate on clearing a patch well over the next month or two in preperation for onions garlic and broad beans which you can plant in october november time.  right now you can sow some lettuce and maybe french beans if your quick and the summer lasts (har har). also you can sow oriental salad stuff and cale. good luck and i am sure there will be planty of other advice to follow and i would say take your time dont panic and enjoy it. o and think about finding a source of manure (ask about on your site) and put it on your cleared beds over the winter or in early spring to keep things happy.

Many thanks Sarah. Hands are still hurting from the strimming. Now forcasted rain so expect all the work to have been wasted. I think we had summer yesterday  ;D I am not sure if I should got for raised beds or plant direct. too much to do at the mo so that can wait. Love onions and Garlic so they will be definates on my ever growing list of hopefuls.

Not much to add to Sarah's very sound advice: aim to clear enough land to plant the autumn stuff, then spend the winter getting it into good shape for planting potatoes next March.

But make sure you spend time planning what type of plot you want, so that at least you've got a picture in your mind (or on paper) and don't just clear & dig aimlessly.

And avoid the rotovator like the plague until you've got rid of things like convolvulus & couch: you've seen the cartoon of Mickey Mouse as The Sorcerer's Apprentice and remember what happened when he tried to chop the broom up?? You'll end up with thousands of roots instead of just hundreds!

And don't try to clear it all in the first season. Aim for a third: you might manage half and be over the moon. But if you aimed for two-thirds and only did half you'd be ready to give up!

If you are thinking of raised beds, to begin with it might be an idea just to mark them out and create them by heaping the top soil of the paths between onto the beds rather than actually constructing them. That way you'll get a better idea of what your comfortable working reach is, how wide you'd like the paths etc

The reason I say this is that once you've built your raised beds, they could be quite hard to move. I did my lay out and build straight away (and before discovering this site :) ) and there are now a number of things I wish I had done a bit differently - though some 'mistakes' have turned out for the best.

Afraid I agree on the don't rotorvate marestail or convolvulus.

The weeds you've cut probably contain some of the perennial nasties so best to either burn them or bag them up and take to the tip or compost them in a very hot compost for a very very long time

On the plus side... the previous tenant obviously kept it well... stinging nettles love good soil and if they are 5' tall that is good soil! If it has only been out of cultvation for a year or so you have done a good deal!
;D

Cheers!! Although rotavating sounds a good quick remedy by the sounds of it this is very misleading so I am glad for all of your advice. Now that I have this, I will put to bed the idea of rotavating and start digging (boo hoo). At least now I have cleared the majority of growth I can now bend down to dig with the fear of a sting in the rear from those nasty critters. i hate nettles with a passion!!!! I will ask about for black plastic to cover the undug areas for now. Thanks again for all your help - you have probably saved me years of major weeding

and mark out your paths, cover with cardboard and weed control or black plastic, it means you don't have to walk on the main beds as they're cleared  :)
by the way, welcome to the site,  ;D

If the nettles have really only had a year or two to grow, be thankful. Over several years the roots get so thick you'd have trouble getting a spade through them, but young ones are no bother.

As Saddad said nettles = good soil, but get them roots out and burn them, the nettles can go in the compost they make a good activater, as others have said no to rotovate, happy digging.  ;D ;D ;D

Just wanted to add my "welcome aboard" Donlottie,  I only found the site quite recently, as you have already discovered lots of friendly adice. Always leave the lottie wanting a little bit more, happy times ahead ;) ;)