Where do I start?

I've just leased an allotment having never gardened before. The allotment has greenhouse & water butt & that's about it, not counting the weeds. They're not particularly dense but, what's the best action to get rid of them. From various advisors eg. Use weed killer, use a spade to turn everything over, cover the allotment up & finally, hire a rotivator. Any best ideas?

 

Hi JFC



Not doing bad if you have a greenhouse and a water butt, any chance of photos and how large the site is.
If me I would give it a good tidy and pull dig out any perennial weeds ie dock nettles brambles if you have any ? then start to dig and if you have any old carpets that you could lay on the soil to stop the grass and weeds growing until you are ready to dig it over would be a good start.

Weedkillers at this time of year dont work that well as the plant need to be actively growing plus it may get washed away with rain so a waste of £££

Great time of year to get it ready for planting up in the spring , plus you can plan out what you want to grow and the greenhouse will come in handy for growing the plant on

 

Give the greenhouse a good clean, replace any broken panes. Wash with Jeyes fluid solution or other greenhouse disinfectant.

 

You could try growing some winter beans and peas in a small patch to try out? I'm doing that in my local community garden

 

Dig the whole lot over. Remove all the weeds you can and put them in a big compost heap. Don't use a Rotavator for this as you will be making more work in the long run. Work little and often, maybe an hour or two per week, otherwise you will loose interest and energy in it.

Wouldn't worry over the greenhouse yet personally.