Just got an allotment but it's all weeds...

Miggie

We're over the moon and really excited, but the reality is dawning....

The plot is about 20 feet wide by 60 feet long and was dug over by the previous occupants earlier this year. They then left it and it now has a good crop of weeds and a row of quite small blackberry bushes at the end.

I've had some suggestions from our allotment neighbours (who are friendly and have immaculate plots - good news). All say get rid of the blackberries as they aren't productive and get in the way of the path at the end of the plot.

Suggestion 1: cover the ground with old sheets, tarpaulin, etc and leave it until spring, then dig it over.
Suggestion 2: use Roundup over the whole plot, then leave it until spring
Suggestion 3: Weed it by hand and dig it over ready for the winter weather to break the soil down ready for spring.

My feeling is to use roundup (once there's a bit less wind), but another neighbour has said that this will wreck the soil....

Also, am I right in thinking that if I cut back the blackberries, they'll just come back stronger?

Any advice would be most welcome, thank you:)

kerrirobberts

I've just taken over a plot myself, we've dug half the plot in 4ft rows going lengthways, put in 1ft paths between. We had loads of couch grass, so pulled out as many of the roots as possible. I've covered the half I know I can't work on over the winter with cardboard, but am considering getting tarpaulin to keep out the light.

I'm going to go through the dug bits and weed it every weekend with a fork. I've done three sessions of this now and I'm getting less and less weeds each week. I don't think it's going to be a quick and easy method, but at least I know my soil will be good. Plus weeding means I get to sit on the floor.

It's definitely worth doing it in small manageable sections, and turning the soil with a small fork helps get the air in and the cold breaks up the soil.

Greenthumb

Get yer back into it !

forgotmyname

Roundup will be useless this time of year you need a dry spell for it to work properly.

Dig as many out now as you can, Then cover with a black plastic sheet or similar. Screwfix or Toolstation
sell it for about £20 15 metres x 4 metres i think.

Do it in sections not one whole piece, Every now and then lift one and see what grows. Dig that up and recover,
uncover another spot.

I think keeping the ground covered the entire time just makes them store energy and sprout up as soon as you uncover
and they maybe deeper rooted by then. I had a patch that had been covered with a piece of plastic for almost a year
and still found weeds growing beneath, They were pale and weedy but still growing.
Also found plenty of tender weed roots still alive.

I think if i had uncovered these would have grown and been easier to find and remove.

When you recover a nice layer of muck will help enrich the soil ready for next years planting.

salthegal

Hire a rotavator or rope some friends in. I wish I had an allotment, Ive been on a waiting list for 4 years now!

glasgowdan

As salthegal says, hire a rotovator. A proper one such as a camon C8, not one of those mantis tiller things. A local tool hire firm will charge about £40 for one for a day, the national companies will charge double this. The whole area will take you an hour or so to dig over with it.

Think about how farmers do it - they keep weeds down by working the soil rather than using membrane.

I would cut the brambles right away, they are horrible and if you ever want blackberries you can help yourself along the farm road hedgerows. If you have good gloves on just heave a bunch close to the roots - the roots come out with the right pressure so there's no danger of them growing back.

Once the plot has been well rotovated I would get a delivery of manure or compost. I would suggest a 100mm layer, so that's about 10m3. If that's too much to handle or get delivered just add what you can. No need to dig it in, just rake it out it on top of the rotovated soil.

Then you can spend a couple of months planning how you're going to use the plot!

jdp1970

glasgowdan wrote: »

As salthegal says, hire a rotovator. A proper one such as a camon C8, not one of those mantis tiller things. A local tool hire firm will charge about £40 for one for a day, the national companies will charge double this. The whole area will take you an hour or so to dig over with it.

Think about how farmers do it - they keep weeds down by working the soil rather than using membrane.

I would cut the brambles right away, they are horrible and if you ever want blackberries you can help yourself along the farm road hedgerows. If you have good gloves on just heave a bunch close to the roots - the roots come out with the right pressure so there's no danger of them growing back.

Once the plot has been well rotovated I would get a delivery of manure or compost. I would suggest a 100mm layer, so that's about 10m3. If that's too much to handle or get delivered just add what you can. No need to dig it in, just rake it out it on top of the rotovated soil.

Then you can spend a couple of months planning how you're going to use the plot!

I have to say this sounds like the best advice.....thats more or less what I did with my plot (in my garden, not allotment). Tried weedkillers but they didnt work!

Miggie

:TThank you all. It looks like I'll be getting some good exercise over the next few weeks!
I've had a quote for a monster rotovator which was 45 for the day, delivered to the plot and picked up. It's a heck of a beast though so I may just stick to the weeding/digging a section and covering the soil over.
I really appreciate your advice.

Jesthar

Miggie wrote: »

:TThank you all. It looks like I'll be getting some good exercise over the next few weeks!
I've had a quote for a monster rotovator which was 45 for the day, delivered to the plot and picked up. It's a heck of a beast though so I may just stick to the weeding/digging a section and covering the soil over.
I really appreciate your advice.

If you can manage or get someone to help you with the 'beast' (or you might find other allotment owners are willing to share the cost and use of it), and the cost is acceptable, you might as well let it do the first round of digging for you - it's always the worst part... Doing the sections after that will be much easier than with virgin weed bed

cubegame

It's a tricky one as an autumn dig will certainly help the (probably) neglected soil. However, digging and rotavating is incredibly bad advice. If your plot has a severe case of perennial weeds all this will achieve is chopping the roots up and hence providing the plants with many hundreds more root cuttings to grow from next spring.

Glyphosate will still work (I used some at the weekend) and will be a good start, but removing perennial weeks by hand will be the best bet as many of these will need repeat applications to get to the roots of these.

berries

Mine was a complety full of weed's hip high most of them!! I've had a lot of help from my YO as he is a farmer so it got scrape and then harrow over. Then I've startd to lay down load's of manuare and coverd that part up. Now I working on the open parts de-weeding and digging out the root's well trying too!! Dock root's are so big!!

LOads of work still to be done on it too!! It will be harrow again not sure when. I am thinking of hireing a rovalter soon as I know my YO is busy at the moment.