Allotments 4 All

Hello I am new to this board
I totally new to all this and have just been given an allotment. Went to see it for first time last week and found it totally overgrown apparently the person who had it before just left it to go to ruin which I think is a sin. Council have sent in the strimmers who seem to have done a half hearted job but at least I can now see the basic lie of the land. I think I need to cover over the weeds/ grass to kill it off and just expose a small amount at a time so I can cope with the major rebuild I need to do. I do not have a lot of money and wondered if it would be a good idea to just use rolls of plastic to cover or do i use anything else. There appears to be no previous structure only 1 bed with boards round it about 2m wide and 10 mtrs long down the middle near the top. Entire allotment is approx 250square meters Any advice please would be gratefully received on how to start this project

you need to cut the weeds off from water and sunlight, so anything that will do that will work - carpets, lino, heavy duty corrugated cardboard, wood panelling or plastic (as long as its black, opaque and doesnt biodegrade over 6 months.)

Dig it in maneagable patches,  let it stand, wait ill the weeds pop there heads over the parapet and cover it again.  if you can get it all dug by october, by the time you uncover it in march you will have bare weed free land.

Thanks Lincs yokel2
I dont know what you think of this but Ive also had someone offer to rotivate the plot. This would oviously mean all the weeds/grass getting churned into the soil which im not sure is such a good idea. However it would mean that it may even out the levels on the plot?

Heavy cardboard is good for covering the ground.  Ask on Freecycle if anyone has had a kitchen delivered.  They'll be only too pleased to have you take away the packaging.

I know that you often hear carpet suggested for covering ground, but many allotments ban it because of the 'nasties' in them.  Even the dye in pure wool can be frowned upon.

Quote from: dyehard on June 26, 2010, 18:14:21
Thanks Lincs yokel2
I dont know what you think of this but Ive also had someone offer to rotivate the plot. This would oviously mean all the weeds/grass getting churned into the soil which im not sure is such a good idea. However it would mean that it may even out the levels on the plot?

Rotovating it will make the weeds explode into life, that ok as long as your ready smother when when they have all got going. Making the weeds show themselves then killing them at birth is good strategy. After 6 months of smothering there will be very few ungerminated seeds left, gives you a head start.

What about weed and grass killer. is there anything recommended and how soon after using, fertilizing and digging over could i plant anything

its a big job you have and patiece will be needed i would clear all the rubbish first

then i woud dig over meduim size patch and plant some veg and salad like radishes and all year round lettuce or some xmas spuds
so as you dig the next bit you know in about six weeks you will be eating something you have grown,, for the rest i would use cardboard get a van or something else pop around  the local tesco and they will have enough cardboard for you or you can try the local co-op

dont use carpet if you can help it

good luck and when you get time post some pics

Only problem wih cardboard is you'll have to get something to hold it down or it will blow away!

Hi, black plastic will do the job, but it takes along time, however  if you cover the whole lot then uncover as you go and do a bit at a time the plastic will stop things getting worse while you are doing bits and will start to work too.

Personally I would not use weedkiller,  some claim to be safe  but there is a split view among gardeners about them.

No, as said before, don't rotavate, it will make it worse.

You might find there is all sorts of stuff among the weeds so be careful as you go could be broken glass, bricks etc.

There really isn't an easy way to do it. Better to dig any pernnial weeds out.

Do you have friends, do a Saturday digging party, bring your own spade etc, provide food.

Black plastic can be expensive if you are covering a full plot.

Good luck, with whatever you decide.

XX Jeannine

PS there is a spot to introduce yourself on the forum, gives folks the chance to say welcome, but welcome from me right here!!

The cheap source of black plastic is the stuff they wrap pallets in. If you know a garden centre and they get compost delivered itll be wrapped with the stuff. If there careful about taking it off, you end up with a lump of UV resistant black plastic about 4 m x 1.5m. I weigh it down with empty compost bags half filled with rubbish (sods of earth. stones etc) and closed with a plastic rachet tie.

Welcome to the forum Dyehard.  Congralutations on getting your allotment.  What sort of weeds have you got.  They do seem daunting to start with but it is surprising just how quickly you can start to get rid of them.

I personally am not a great fan of rotavators but some people do a great job with them but depends on which weeds you have.

I am also not a fan of weedkillers but bindweed is difficult to shift without it.

Good luck.  I would suggest getting a small area sorted to you can get a few crops in it is not too late for most things.

Stinging nettles are also a bit of a pain if you dig them out it is very easy to cut off bits of the runners and they root very easity.  I try and cut the plant off with a spade all round just under soil level making sure that you take the reddish colours runners and then dig out the yellow root separately.  

Our soil has dried out and it very difficult to dig at the moment, I managed small patch by wetting it. 

I  like the sound of the compost bags lincsyokel2  , it seems to be very difficult to get black plastic to stay down, the weeds seem to be growing so strongly at the moment they seem to lift it up.

Just want to say thanks to you all
This is all very helpfull info your giving me and i do appreciate it. As I explained this is all new to me as Mrs dyehard (were not married but live in sin together  ;) ) only has a small garden so I'm not used to such a big area to work with especially as its been so ignored and left to run wild.Its a big project but I am really ecited but need you guys to help me not make too many mistakes. Thanks

Where do I post my introduction and some photos of "The Wilderness" as I call it

Quote from: Digeroo on June 26, 2010, 20:22:04

I  like the sound of the compost bags lincsyokel2  , it seems to be very difficult to get black plastic to stay down, the weeds seem to be growing so strongly at the moment they seem to lift it up.

go over it with a strimmer first to level it and weaken them, by he time the plants manage to redevelop stems thick enough to push up, they'll by half way dead.

Quote from: dyehard on June 26, 2010, 18:14:21
Thanks Lincs yokel2
I don't know what you think of this but Vie also had someone offer to rotivate the plot. This would oviously mean all the weeds/grass getting churned into the soil which im not sure is such a good idea. However it would mean that it may even out the levels on the plot?

Don't do it!!!!
The first year of us having our allotment we paid a gardening company to completely level the ground.  Brambles, couch grass, bindweed you name it.  We paid £650.  It took three men five days to do it.  They used a rotivator.  It cut and churned all the weeds into the soil.  Even now two years later we are still suffering.  The weeds grew back twofold.  I now believe rotivators should only be used on just soil and not as a quick fix for weeds.
I hope you don't use a rotivator but just take your time and do it by hand.  Time consuming, but definitely worthwhile.
Julie

:)

Hi again, Dyehard,

click on Forum, scroll down and click on Shed, you will see "a place for newbies to introduce themselves."

XX Jeannine

we covered the whole thing with cardboard and tarpaulins, took a bit up and dug that bit, sifting as we went, then covered it back over whilst doing the rest.

we had to dig cos we had a field of brambles, doc leaves, nettles, dandelions and bindweed some of the most horrid ones!!!

once it was all done we paid a chap on site to plough and rotavate the plot which i felt we also had to do because there were massive plough ridges in the land.

there are still weeds now but nowhere near anything like last year!

I havent used my whole plot this year so i'm starting to re-cover the bits i'm not using so that it wont be a horrible job again come winter.


so i'd cover, dig, sift, rotavate if it were me :)

 I think that the advice you have already will be enough to see you through for a while. We have a rotovator but only use it for weed free ground. It get used to turn the muck in more than anything else.

The bit you have dug, leave it open. Let the weeds germinate and start growing, THEN cover them. That way you have made them show there faces, and smothering them at that point will kill them easily. If you cover straight away they will just sit there 6 months waiting for you to take the cover off THEN they will start growing.

I'm a great believer in digging.  It gets air into the soil and makes it much, much easier to pull the weeds out.  If it was me I'd strim everything down to the ground and rake up the debris to compost, then I'd dig it through and not pull any weeds out the first time through, and as that would take several weeks I'd keep strimming down what I hadn't dug.  And if you can plant something strong as you go so much the better - sweetcorn, marrows, potatoes, runner beans - they all compete quite well with weeds.  Then I'd dig it through in the autumn and pull out the worst of what weeds had survived. 

The first strim is useful so you can rake up the weed growth - digging it in is difficult if there's too much and it takes a little longer to break down in the soil.  But after that covering the ground with cardboard is probably just as good, though it's not something I've tried.  I prefer to let the rain and weather get at the soil to keep it workable and sweet.

So much depends on your soil.  Is it light, or heavy?  It's altogether possible that by now the ground has baked hard as concrete so rather than get demoralised it might be an idea just to keep the weeds down until we get a good shower of rain.

Nothing wrong with rotovating if you want to get the ground turned over quickly.......however,you need to use the correct type of equipment.Slashing tines will only chop up the roots and spread them about causing more grief later on.Pick tines will loosen up the ground without chopping the weeds and it will be easier to lift out the weeds.