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Gardening

Find tips and tricks to make your garden or allotment flourish on our Gardening forum.

New allotment

3 replies

Dogswithteddies · 09/09/2017 13:34

Help! We've just been given an allotment, which is of course completely overgrown. What do i do? Should I rototiller it or cover up the weeds till spring?... Are there things I could plant now to improve the soil, or should I just get started planting stuff?Thanks!

OP posts:
bookbook · 10/09/2017 15:03

Lots to do now - the best time for getting ready!
Is it large, any water/compost bins?
First things first - have a good look around and see if you have any fruit bushes/trees/perennials ( rhubarb/artichokes/asparagus) . If so , try to weed around them and give them some air and space. Then cover up all of it - weed membrane or cardboard .
Take up a bit at a time as you can, weed and dig over , and plant something. There is time yet to plant onions, shallots, garlic, spring cabbage . Good luck!
You can also have a look at our allotment thread - everyone is helpful :)

AlternativeTentacle · 10/09/2017 15:20

Personally, I'd do exactly as Bookbook said, and have a scoot round for anything that you can harvest now or that needs clearing around it.

I'd start now and cut down everything else, and go square meter by square meter over the autumn and winter, dig out all weeds and cover immediately after with cardboard. Don't let any soil sit bare over winter. Weight the card down by [if you have one] mowing all the weeds, or by using heavier stuff [stones, bit of wood, bricks] to stop it blowing about.

I'd not put anything in now, but just clear and plan, for next spring.

I'd decide on whether you are going to have permanent paths, and where these are going, and plan that into the clearing up as you will want to do that first, so that you can put [for example] weed fabric down and stick to walking on that, whilst you clear the rest. The beauty of this approach is that you can grow more in the beds, than you can if you don't have paths and grow the traditional way, where you have to dig the whole allotment over each year. Also are you having a shed? Are you having to collect your own water? this really needs careful planning so that you don't put it in the wrong place.

Also what type of soil is it and does it need anything adding? If you have thick clay soil, you might want to think about how you are going to add organic matter, and are you going to mulch everything next year to stop it drying out? Set up an area where the weeds that you dig up can be composted, I use dalek style compost bins, but as I have clay soil, I put them on the beds where I need the most compost - and move them about all the time.

Basically, dig, weed, plan and cover.

Frouby · 10/09/2017 20:52

What they said!

We took on a massive, overgrown neglected plot in May of this year. The brambles and nettles were 6ft high on half of it.

We cleared about 6 x 6m2 to work straight away then have been gradually clearing and covering the rest. We did hire a brush cutter one weekend to get rid of the brambles and nettles as it was painfully slow and painfull literally.

We have had a good and productive first harvest and actually growing stuff did keep us going. But you are a bit limited now to get stuff in to get a harvest for this year.

I would start planning and researching for next spring. Get structres like beds and fencing sorted. Decide if you need a shed or polytunnel or greenhouse and get those sorted.

It feels very daunting now looking at it but it is surprising how much better it can look with a few hours graft here and there. And at least you can concentrate on getting stuff ready for spring without fretting about stuff growing/not growing/bolting/dealing with gluts Grin.

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