Can i hire a rotavator and just blitz new allotment site or should i really do the whole lot by hand and it will take months ?

[fakeblondie]

I can hire a rotavator and dh will dig the lot over but someone told me we shouldnt do this as all the weeds will be churned into the ground. Ill never manage to prepARE THE BED THIS YEAR THO OTHERWISE-TIS A HUGE SITE NEVER BEEN DUG OVER BEFORE .
cHEERS

Eeek. This is a tricky one, as it's tempting to just rotavate it and be done with it. But that's just the problem, you won't be done with it and can create yourself all sorts of problems. Plants like bindweed that can regenerate from a small piece of root, will love being chopped up and grow all over again. All the gardening manuals will tell you to do it by hand...(pass the back rub!)
Is there any way you could do some by hand, weeding properly, and just grow stuff on this. Then cover the rest with something like old carpet (get it from freecycle) and layers of newspapers, and most of the weeds will die from lack of light. Then you can dig this at a later date, and it will be much easier.
Alternatively there are weed killers that will kill everything, but you might feel uncomfortable about growing crops on it then...Some are 'safer' than others.
Lucky you to have a plot though. Good luck in your planting!

In the same position, but we have just dived in and started digging and shoved some stuff in, potatoes are good for breaking up the soil. We have had ours 3 weeks and have 2 beds about 1.5x4m. Dug them over roughly, allowed them to weather for a week, redug, rake a bit and shoved stuff in. If it grows it grows. We want to avoid weed killer.

Most advice has been start small. If you start one bed and get stuff propagating at home you can still put stuff in for the summer then start on the next bed for later in the year. You need to look at it for the long term (she says very impatiently!).

Agreed, start small..
Although weeds are bl**dy annoying, you can't get rid of them as fast as you'd like to.

I've never tried this (mainly because I don't have an allotment) but I read a while ago about a method called Lazy Beds being used to clear the ground. Sounds interesting and might be worth trying one or two alongside any properly cleared beds that you create.

Any way you could bring in a pig or two?

I've just borrowed a rotovator - first use today - it's fab. Couldn't you use in conjunction with weedkiller? I believe you can buy biodegradable stuff so you can replant quickly.