Allotments 4 All

Can anyone give any advice please.  Over winter and the heavy rains my allotment is like a giant mud slide, you can't walk on it or dig it as it is like thinck clay, but the minute it drys out its really good soil, loamy and not like clay at all.  I am doing one half with raised beds but what can I do about the other half, can I still plant in this, or just leave it bare over winter, cause it seems such a waste.  Has anyone one else had this problem and how did you get around it.

I'm afraid the best solution is the old fashioned gardening methods.

Get all the digging done before the New Year, plant early spring crops as appropriate then wait till conditions improve - any day now.

In the middle of June, tens of thousands of hippies, young and old,  pay huge amounts to wallow in a giant mud fest down in Glastonbury.

Thus, I suggest you fence it off and charge entry.   ;D

LOL   ;D

don't tempt me lol

Wait for that small window of opportunity when it is workable, before it bakes rock hard... about one week, you'll be away or too busy and you've missed it for another year!!
;D

Dig it when the opportunity occurs, and dig in as much organic matter as you can to improve the soil.

I don't know whether you have the same problem that we do (and even more our allotment neighbour).  After heavy and prolonged rain, part of our plot becomes literally waterlogged.  There's an underground stream, so the water table is high at the best of times.

Right now if we dig a hole in the affected area, it will fill with water.  This means that there's no point digging and planting in the autumn - the plants will drown. The ONLY solution is raised beds.  It's a great place for celery, though!

just dig in loads of organic stuff and some sharp sand, old leaves are good for soil texture. Raised beds are a faster option to help drainage.

Does it slope at all, is there any way you could dig some biggish plastic pipes under the soil at points to drain the water away?

Can you move to another, drier plot ?

no plots are like gold dust here, i love where I am at at the moment, I got it last october before the raining season came in and the soil was beautiful, but I think its just bad luck with all the rain we have had, I think I might use it for summer growing and then raised beds for winter growing, and put lots of muck on the half prone to flooding and leave it ready to dig for next summer