New allotment site

Don't walk directly behind it, but towards one side and work like this. My rotovator handles can be adjusted to either side (AKA handlebar swing) . If going over it a 2nd time, go at 90 degrees to the 1st lines to get rid of any hidden ridges of uncultivated soil (plus footprints from the 1st cultivation, especially as I'm not very careful about walking on it if I intend to go over it again).



The above rotovating grid is a bit of a simplification because of the turning circle of my large rotovator I might start on 2 central areas, missing occasional rows and gradually joining them together and doing the missing bits.

 

Thanks for the suggestions @Scrungee and @Steve R. I don't think the tiller at our allotments has got adjustable handles unfortunately. Also going over it a second time at 90 degrees is a bit tricky since we've laid it out as 4ft wide beds separated by paths.

I think we're just going to have to give it a go and see how we get on. Otherwise it's back to breaking it up with a rake or large hoe.

 

Perhaps not then (I think my rotovator has a turning circle of nearly 2 metres).

My plot is heavy clay soil and I've been working it for about 25 years, always using rotovators. It can (& often does) stay too wet for a decent standard of cultivation so as much as possible gets sown in cellular inserts (max 24x for planting out) or pots. Salad stuff is sown is raised beds which have had loads of spent compost and sand worked into them.

The trouble with my clay soil is that you need to catch it at just the right time to rotovate in Spring without digging, when it's dried out enough to cultivate without just churning in up into a muddy mess that jams the tines, but before it bakes solid and the tines wont go in. And you need to have the time available to go through it again before it bakes into solid lumps or gets sodden again.

Rough digging can help, but once again you need to be ready to rotovate as soon a the sods have dried out sufficiently, but not baked into solid lumps. So many times I've seen people so keen to get on with their new plot that they've hired/borrowed a rotovator too early and churned the first few inches into a mess, then come back again after it's baked solid and have it bounce off the sods. Or they've rough dug it from one end to another in spring and it's all baked solid into football size lumps before they brought a rotovator.

Yes, from the colour of the soil it looks ready for a tiller. Watch how others are getting on with it.

I started with stump rooted varieties (same with parsnips) until I'd got a decent depth of fine soil in some raised beds. Watch out for cracks forming along rows in dry weather as they can act like a row of wedges.

P.S. Another thing with clay soil is that the clay particles seem to migrate towards the (low) edges of the plot, making those areas particularly claggy.

 

Thanks Scrungee. Your description of digging with clay soil is exactly what we have observed. The beds we dug over a couple of weeks ago now have solid lumps on the surface which we will need to break down. Probably should have tried the tiller on them a week or so ago before they'd baked solid!!

It's interesting to see what other plot holders are doing. Many have built raised beds and some have been filling them with top soil or compost they have brought in. It might be a quick fix but it seems like a lot of expense and effort to me.

 

This was my clay soil after digging up spuds last August and immediately it baked into solid great lumps, which were left for winter frosts to break down, but then it got so wet over winter that I've only just managed to start cultivating it, and if I'd left it much longer it would have been a solid slab unsuitable for seeding.

Welcome to the joys of clay soil!