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hello.

a friend of mine has an allotment, and was finding a little too much to keep, so i've started sharing it with him and his girlfriend.

was great up there, very over grown, but much fun cutting down nettles, grass, and brambles to clear pathway between the beds.

can tell next few months is gonna be hard work, but a lot of fun.

next time i go up will take my digital camera.

Great - I think it's best if you are sharing an allottment with somebody - gives you all more of an incentive to carry on, even in bad conditions - more fun all round!

You'll also have someone to share the glut of lettuce with! Good luck with the lottie.

That's great mate! I hope it goes well.

Just get your self a tube of DeepHeat!

Nev

so had two good times up there, digging one of the plots that is ready for use, and cutting back a lot of stingers and grass from the other plot...

the allotment is on the top of the biggest hill in brighton, and i live at the bottom - so its all good exercise ,cycling up there then doing some work! - should get myself fit no end.

now what i am thinking, and wondering, is if a patch is heavily overgrown, would it be best for me, once i have cut it down, to then cover it with carpet / or tarps etc to stop the sun getting to it and allow it to die back?

grahoom wrote:now what i am thinking, and wondering, is if a patch is heavily overgrown, would it be best for me, once i have cut it down, to then cover it with carpet / or tarps etc to stop the sun getting to it and allow it to die back?

That's what I would do if you are not going to use it in the near future.

cheers ina, we have a third of the allotment ready for planting etc..

if i did want to use the bit that i am clearing, would it be better for me to use a rotovator (i don't really like the idea of using one...) or would it be better for me to actually do the hard work of digging it by hand, and turn the soil so that the cut down stuff is covered with the underlying earth i've dug (if that makes any sense at all, but i know what i mean!!! )

Personally, I would prefer to dig it - I always think if you rotovate it, it just cuts up the roots and, depending on what type of weeds you've got there, it might multiply them rather than get rid of them... Also, if you are digging, you can stop and pick up roots and remove them instead of chopping them and leaving them around.

Depends on how many acres you've got to dig, of course!

Hi - we turned a part of the garden into the veggie patch this year most of it was grass and we rotavated the lot - around the part where it was a bed for shrubs, the ground elder has come back, so if you have a part with perennial weeds it's much better to do what Ina suggests and dig and thoroughly remove all traces of them... Otherwise, if you're in a rush (and maybe you're not if you're not going to use the ground this year) you could rotavate.... better on the environment if you don't though!?

Shall I stop waffling now?!

Tigerhair wrote:better on the environment if you don't though!?

Shall I stop waffling now?!

yeah good point, i was thinking that today when i was up there. i'd prefer to do as much by hand, and well, there is no rush really.

i'll be up there friday on my day off - might take the digi-cam.

thanks for the advice !

Beware of some creeping grasses if you rotavate them. I reckon they are like bindweed and every little bit of root will make a new plant.

Also beware of chafer grubs lurking under turf - better to dig it by hand and pick the little beggars out or they will have great fun with your veg roots!

Hi everyone ..

When I dug up my patch the other day (well bits by bits) .. I actually burried the turf layer .. deep down under at least 50 cm of good soil ... cutting as much as I could from it ... by hand of course . but it's not acres of veggie patch .. and when one part is dug and seeded .. just moved onto the next one..

I heard it's supposed to be effective because the weeds and all get no sunshine, so they rot down and fertilises the bed.

So would that work or am I just going to have a nightmare weeding the thing in a few days/weeks ?

Camile

Theoretically that should work, but again, be warned of creeping type grasses, because they will still come through. I have forbidden my husband from doing that in my garden ever again!

So if I understand well M3 ..

it's YOUR garden but your husband does all the hard work ! fair play to you !

But of course!!! He's shifting a newly delivered corde of wood right now. Whilst I'm playing on the computer!!