Compacted soil - any suggestions

[ohfook]

After being on the list for years, I’ve finally got my allotment. I’m feeling excited and slightly overwhelmed.

The soil is extremely compacted and full of rubble and there’s no beds that I can make use of. While I was there today I found out that the previous holder covered the whole plot in a structures which is both why he was kicked off the plot and why the soil is shite.

Today I’ve been simultaneously advised to get someone in to rotivate it and under no circumstances to rotivate it because it makes the mares tale problem worse.

I was just wondering if anybody else had planted on a site where previously there’d been a shed or greenhouse and what worked for you?

TIA

I don’t like no dig, but that’s just me, but in your shoes I would rotivate, then work bit by bit whilst moving the frames along.

Don't rotavate if there are any perennial weed roots in there, you will chop them into little bits which will all root and cause havoc. The other trouble with rotavating is that the weight of the machine itself acts to compact the substrate below the soil being rotavated.

I'm afraid that the best solution would be double digging, and removing all the weeds and roots as you go. Double digging entails digging a trench one spade deep at the end of the plot, and putting that soil to one side. You then fork over the ground at the bottom of that trench and add soil improver. You then dig row 2, filling in row 1 with the soil from the row 2 trench, fork over the bottom and add soil improver again. Repeat ad infinitum, until you get to the last row, which you fill in with the soil from trench 1. You remove weeds, debris, stones etc as you go. It is back-breakingly hard work and I've only ever done it once.

Either that, or plant potatoes over the entire plot. They break the ground up as they swell.

If you have mares tail I definitely wouldn’t rotavate, and if your soil is full of rubble it’s not going to help much with that either. You could go the raised bed route, although it’s expensive to start with if you have to bring in stuff to fill the beds. Or just do the dig thing - I wouldn’t bother with double digging but would dig the top layer. Potatoes are a great first crop as pp said. And you could dig planting holes for squash/pumpkins/courgettes and plant those, they cover good amounts of ground so this year could ramble over rubbish bits and hide a multitude of sins.

Maybe dig up half and plant potatoes in the other half to reduce how much work you need to do straight away. They dig up the other side next year.

For the marestail I wouldn't dig at all, that just chops the roots and spreads it. Use a fork to fork it out if you must or hand pull it when the shoots come up. It takes years to get rid of it whatever method you use even using a professional grade mulching material.

For the compacted soil with rubble, I would again use a fork to make holes by just pushing the tines in giving it a bit of a wiggle, and removing the fork, not lifting the soil. This allows water and air to get in. Then I'd mulch it heavily with well rotted FYM or compost. I've done this no end of times when working on gardens with heavily compacted soil.

I had compacted soil on my allotment 5 years ago, it had decades of greenhouses and sheds on it. We do no dig because it suits the soil conditions better, it's not everyones cup of tea but our harvests are just the same as everyone elses. It's up to the individual to use whatever method suits their way of working best.

One of the worst areas that is also in a reasonable amount of shade we have permanent veg, herbs, and fruit. I interplant with flowering plants for cutflowers and wildlife there too. We don't end up with massive gluts but still more than we can use so friends and family benefit and preserves for everyone at Christmas.

I second the advice to not try to do everything at once; you'll get overwhelmed. Do it bit-by-bit and build some 'wins' into the plan, to keep you motivated.
Good luck!