Complete makeup of my allotment

Hi all,

around 6 weeks ago I posted my new allotment status and the project was to start to clean what I got. I started to hoe the ground, but initially, it was too wet and almost impossible. Two weekends ago we had a sunny warm weather and I wasn't in the UK. The same this weekend. The status of the soil is not good anyway, it is still hard with very rooted grass and other weeds.
I've started to consider a complete make up like the following:
1. remove all beds (they're made up by old bad timber)
2. rent a cultivator and make the complete allotment upside down
3. clean all weeds
4. integrate some soil if needed
5. dig some parallel grooves

I am not considering to use immediately all the space. I think that once the soil is made usable, it requires just regular maintenance to keep it soft and ready for sowing

What do you think? Am I completely crazy?

S

 

I'm a bit old fashioned, I dont use raised beds, I just dig the area over removing weeds as I go, been a long time since I took on a new allotment, but that was how I started.

Since then it has been a case of just keeping it under control each year and not letting it get away from you.

Just do a small area at a time, and then keep it under, while at the same time moving on slightly.
Its surprising how far you can get, but you have to be relentless, especially at this time of the year.

 

Im about a month in to starting mine - Im trying to split the time between sorting out the mess & clearing enough space to get things in ; I did think about borrowing a rotovator & going over the whole space but my gut feeling is that it would be back to weeds before I got around to planting it all .. also been removing some bindweed & other nasties that you dont want to spread around.. hopefully theres not too much of that to find. Removing all the old junk & endless small bits of plastic are the most annoying things at the moment.

 

The reason for doing so much in a single time is that I need to capitalize the cost of the rotovator/cultivator.
I know weeds will come up again, but there are also ways to control them, like using black sheets to cover the soil and eliminate the light.

 

I've always steered clear of rotavators, especially on weed infested areas.
They just cut up the weed roots and spread them all over the place.

As far as I'm concerned there is no short cut, unless you are prepared to use glyphosate.

If you killed off the weeds first before rotavating that might make sense.

But that would mean leaving the ground untouched for about a month after application.