Hello

[slowworm]

Hello all, feeling fairly excited as I have just been assigned an allotment plot, which is going to be a challenge as it is fairly overgrown at the moment to the height of 4 feet
mainly with tall grass and docks ..etc, I have some limited gardening experience and try and do things organically much to the slugs delight ! any advice regarding getting weeds down for the coming winter would be appreciated, my neighbour has already told me not to go near it with a rotavator, its the worse thing i should do apparently ?

Thanks from Mark

[Bren In Pots]

Hello and welcome to the vine Mark

[Small pumpkin]

Welcome to the vine

[Cadalot]

Welcome and I would agree with your neighbour, last thing you want to do is cut couch grass into 50mm lengths to they all start growing.

We could really do with a sticky post on here somewhere, more than likely there is perhaps a mod will post a link on this thread

[Jay-ell]

Hi Slowworm and welcome to the vine.

Definitely don't use a Rotavator unless you want to turn 1 dock into 100 docks.

You don’t want to put couch grass or dock straight onto the compost pile either or they'll thrive there - best either

• pack them into black bags, tie them closed and leave them somewhere sunny to ferment for a fewmonths,
• put the roots onto something like a concrete slab and let them dry out and die
• drown them but packing them into a lidded bucket, topping with water and leaving them till next year
• ALL of the above to make sure

after that they can be composted once they are totally dead

[Scarlet]

Hello and welcome to the vine. Have you got a strimmer? I would strim the weeds down and cover your plot over with large sheets of card. Weigh down with some bricks etc. Tackle one bed at a time, digging out as much of the roots as possible. Plant up as you go. The ones that are covered with card will be much easier to tackle the longer it's under cover.

Have you got any photos? We love photos!

[Scarlet]

We could really do with a sticky post on here somewhere, more than likely there is perhaps a mod will post a link

There's some great threads on clearing ground on here...I'll post a few links in a bit.

This is worth a read: http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ment_5573.html

[veggiechicken]

Hello slowworm and welcome to the Vine.
Just thinking about 4' high weeds - I'd get lost in there
My advice would be to take a pair of secateurs and a bin bag, and work your way through the plot cutting off the seed heads and binning them. This will stop them spreading and give you a breathing space to find some cardboard to suppress them.

We could really do with a sticky post on here somewhere, more than likely there is perhaps a mod will post a link on this thread

Every new plot is different - as are the plotholders! Some are completely new to gardening, other have some experience. They may want to be organic or couldn't care. Their plots may be totally overgrown but with different "weeds" to the next new member.

A Sticky thread could only offer general advice, we like to help people as individuals with advice tailored to their specific needs.

There are plenty of threads about starting out, especially in the New Shoots and I would encourage every new member to pull up a chair and have a browse. We're here to help with the specifics

[craftymarie]

Hi Slowworm and welcome to the Vine. You'll get lots of good advice here

[Ms-T]

Hi ya and welcome

[Verinda]

Hello Mark, welcome to the forum

[slowworm]

Hello and thankyou

Thanks for all of your replies...so my crazy neighbour is actually right !..I have ordered a hand scythe for now , so plan on making some attempt at the weekend, I love the little hand scythe, I spent many years on farms cutting and slashing with the sun on my neck and blisters on my hands...memories ! . Will post some before and after pics on here soon of the plot

Thanks from Mark

[Cadalot]

Mark

That's what I did with my first allotment. I documented my progress on my diary / blog back in 2013. You will see what I planned and how those plan got modified as I learnt more and thought more about my plot as I worked it and some of the many wonders I discovered the previous owner had hidden for me to find.



last year I took on my second allotment plot on another site and I have been documenting progress on that one as well.

[Bigmallly]

Hello Mark & welcome to the Jungle. I echo the idea of covering as much as you can with cardboard, cycle shops tend to be a good source. Then just tackle a small patch at a time until you are happy with it. This was my plots progress when I got it...............no longer mine though I'm afraid:

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...++40+days.html