To rotavate or not to rotavate thats the question

pinkparrott

I've just got an allotment after 6years on the waiting list.:j The council have fenced in some more land next to some allotments, it used to be allotments but have been told they haven't been cultivated since the 2nd world war ! Any way i've spent the last 4 days nearly killing myself. I've managed to cut about 6 small trees and cleared / cut down and burnt hundreds of brambles.

I then spent a day digging and after a bout 5 hours i'd only managed to do a 1m x 3m patch !!:mad: the ground is very hard so i'm now considering hiring a heavy duty rotavator this weekend as i really wan to get it done so i can start constructing my raised beds / paths etc and try to get some stuff in this year.

Apart from the brambles and lots of nettles it hasn't got many other weeds.

Should I rotavate or not??

stilernin

I haven't had any experience of tackling anything like that..... just wanted to say well done on getting your allotment after such a long wait. :j:j I heard at the weekend that I'm now at the top after approx 15mths. Just half a plot for me.

Have you been working your garden for the last 6 years?

Good luck with it... and take is as a marathon not a sprint.

ScratchandSniff-->[X]

pinkparrott wrote: »

Should I rotavate or not??

Depends what's in the ground making it hard. If it's just bound up with roots, the rotavator will just bind up. Wait till it's very dry and pull them out.

Suzy_M

Problem with rotavators is they just chop brambles and nettles up so you end up with even more weed plants. By all means use one to break up the soil for you but you will still have to keep digging away to remove the new weeds, roots and all, as and when they come up.

Optimisticpair

I don't think rotovating would be a good idea as it will chop the roots up and spread them. Brambles cut and burn, then fork the runners out and dig the stump out, nettles fork out and make liquid fertiliser with.

Is it that the soil is stony or just compacted? Hard work by hand but worth it.

I know it will look wonderful all cleared and looking like an allotment but you only need to clear the part you are planting up. I would divide the plot into small manageable sections, clear one section by forking it over and get out weed roots by hand whole. Digging them out with a spade can chop the roots up. Once you have got a section cleared plant or cover the bare soil and tackle the next section.

Bare soil is a weed magnet. Weeds need light to grow the same as plants do so a lot of folks use carpet, black plastic or weed control sheeting to exclude light until they can clear the sections.

You must be fit to dig for 5 hours! If not you will get fitter!

conradmum

Bear in mind that you're clearing what is essentially the early stages of woodland. This will take time and patience. If you overdo it now you'll hurt yourself and perhaps give yourself an injury that will prevent you from doing any gardening for the rest of the year, perhaps even something that you'll have to manage for the rest of your life.

Despite the fact that you're understandably extremely eager to get your plot cleared, accept that this is entirely the wrong time of year to be doing this and you may not be able to both clear all the land and grow things on it this year. At this time of year everything's growing like crazy. Those brambles and nettles you've cut down will be sprouting again in days and you'll just find yourself cutting them down again and again.

I'd advise you to section off an area of the plot and prepare this well for planting. Then you can sow your vegetables and eat some of the results of your labour. Once you're confident you have time to tackle more of the plot and look after the part you've cleared, then go ahead. But one step at a time. If you don't do this you risk spending the year clearing again and again as it all grows back, while watching the things you're growing disappear under weeds.

You can try and keep the rest of the plot under control while you focus on your growing area by cutting it all to the ground and covering in black plastic. If you're happy using weedkiller you could spray at brushwood strength something like Roundup, leave it three weeks then carefully dig through and remove any large roots (they'll be dead but in your way).

Rotavating is probably not a great idea. Some allotmenteers swear by it but it does spread around roots of pernicious weeds which grow back more vigorously, breaks up the soil structure and kills worms and beetles etc which are your friends.

Lotus-eater

I would say that without seeing the ground myself, it's almost impossible to give good advice on whether to rotovate or not.
It has it's good points and it's bad points, some of which are above.

I don't like rotovating very much, but it can have it's place.

Remember that those machines, even the heavy duty ones, aren't miracle machines, if your ground is really that hard, then it will be more than hard going, it might even not be able to do it.

You can rotovate and I have a friend that did exactly that, she was on her plot all the time after that, pulling up the weeds constantly to make sure they didn't get a hold again.

The best way, is to do it bit by bit and follow conradmums advice, the quick, but may be more work in the future way, is to rotovate, whack everything in, then try and keep up.

Whatever, start all of your plants off in modules yesterday, so that whatever you do, you at least have plants ready to go in.

What you can also do, is to cover large areas in cardboard or plastic and plant through, dig the immediate area the plant is to go, just to remove some of the weeds that it will fight against.

matt987106

we took over a allotment and it used to be wild land that the council fenced off

it was very hard work, i got a rotovater off ebay, with the idea that i could use it every year to turn the soil over in oct

i priced to up to rent 1 was about 60 quid for the week, i purchased a 2nd hand unit and it only cost 90