I might have an allotment any advice?

Hey Guys,

so I am going through stages you do in order to get an allotment. However it is very overgrown and in a right state. What shall I do?

Love
Bex

 

Have a allotment barbecue and get all your mates and family around to get stuck in.

Get your mum and dad to buy new carpet for the house and you can use all the old carpet to cover the weeds its a win win for all

Spruce

 

Somehow i don't think they will help.... :(

 

Nice one

Spruce is right with the covering bit, work on a small bit to start with, but cover the areas you'm not using, carpet, cardboard boxes etc. Gives you time to breath without having to spend all your time fighting weeds

 

It's hard work at first but well worth the effort

Mine was over grown with rubbish everywhere, took the best part 10 months to tidy it up
do a small section at a time and you still have time to grow something this
season...tatties - I planted some about the 1st July last year and 3 months later still managed
to get about 25kgs of Spuds

 

Can you swing a pick? That's how I turned over my allotment I got when I was 18.

I don't think you have to be able to swing a pick. I don't think its a prerequisite. But it is good fun. One time when I was just about to stop for a rest, a fine lady stopped right outside my allotment on the pretense that she was waiting for her kid or her dog or somet to catch up, but her eyes were more on me than the path. I should have been flattered, but as I kept that pick axe going, with every swing I was thinking "for goodness sake, just walk on woman". I was nearly dead by the time she averted her eyes and went on her way, so I could stop.

 

Youth! I remember those days ...

Bexy:

Be cautious about using carpet. Once the weeds get a hold in it then it will be a nightmare to remove.

Assuming the soil is good (i.e. it has been worked well for decades / centuries, but been neglected for a year or three, and thus become over grown) I would suggest:

1. Identify if there is anything worth salvaging - soft fruit like Raspberries / Currants

2. Cut all the top growth down

3. Consider using weedkiller (see below)

4. Cover it all with cardboard - use the largest boxes you can find. Electrical shops selling washing machines and stonking big TVs are a good bet, as are Bike shops. They have to pay to have their rubbish taken away, so you are doing them a favour by taking it for them

5. Plant the veg straight through cardboard - particularly if you have plants to plant, rather than seeds. For seeds you can remove some cardboard and dig the soil (it will be moist under the cardboard, once it has been down for a few weeks), and the weeds will have packed up. Put the cardboard back after sowing - just leave a narrow gap where the seeds were sown.

Re: weedkiller

A Glyphosate based weedkiller will kill the green plant material it comes into contact with, and be neutralised on contact with the soil. The weeds need to be actively growing for it to work, so if you cut it all down wait until they have made some new growth before applying. Then wait 2 weeks for weeds to go brown, if there are areas of green (where you missed some bits) or some weeds have not gone brown, apply more weedkiller to them. Either cover with cardboard then, or wait another two weeks and then start digging.

Re: rotavating

Don't! It will chop up all the weed roots, and each bit will make a new weed :( If you have got a really good kill with weed killer its worth considering rotavating, but personally I think covering with cardboard should get the soil into good state without digging (but I am assuming that the soil is good, from previous folk that looked after the plot, added lots of manure and compost, over the years)