To rotavate or not?

[devon-surfer]

I have recently taken over a plot which has not been touched for over a year. It is well compacted and very hard to dig over. I've got rid of weeds. I want to rotavate to save my back as i've dug over some, and its slow going. Would a normal tiller/rotavater work or does it need something more industious?

[LOUBLOU1]

wE TOOK OVER OUR PLOT AND WE WERE TOLD TO JUST LOOSEN THE SOIL AND THEN ROTOVATE(Sorry shouting) We only had a small tiller and it did the job and the soil is quite nice. I would say from personal experience give it a try. Im sure someone with years of experience will come along and maybe say different.

HTH

Lou

[Seahorse]

What sort of weeds do you have? Sometimes rotavating can make things harder in the long run, because things like bindweed and couch grass just get chopped up into many more new plants

I tok over a very overgrown plot and am fairly petite, so found digging over with a spade was taking a LONG time. However, I bought a right angled fork and it's 100% easier! I can work much faster and with much less back breaking effort. Maybe worth a try?

[TinyT]

I find digging manually better than a the rotavator. In Areas where I've used the rotavator there seems to be more weeds coming up. (I probably have binweed!).

[Cloud]

ROTIVATE!ROTIVATE!ROTIVATE!Best thing I ever did was buy one of these babys.Makes things like bindweed and couch grass easier to get rid of!

[number 1 suspect]

Its a shame to ignore the advances in gardening. Just think of all those hours put in by inventors to produce a machine to do the digging for us..... What an insult it would be to those fine men and women if we ignored the tool they designed.........


Oh yeah rotavate. Just in case you were wondering :-)

[Shirley Sherriffs]

Hi there. I'min the same position,just got a plot which is just a jungle of couch grass 1ft high and willow herb(why do they allow allotment to get into such a mess when there are so many people desperate for them). I sprayed everything with roundup and its definately on the way out. I am going to bite the bullet and hire a 4 tined rotavator from our tool hire place. It will be on the heavy side but husband will do this bit (I hope). I actually enjoy digging but this job is way to big for my back to survive unscathed and it will make a good job of reducing the soild to a tilth I would have to work at for a long time achieve. Good luck with your plot hope you manage to get 'something' in this year. I thnk it will be next year before mine is ready.

[Snadger]

Not a great fan of rotavators, even though (like most gardeners) I have a bad back. I think rotavators are probably useful on certain types of soil but a waste of time on others. They do tend to make a 'plough pan' with cultivating to a fixed depth and can chop up perennial weeds allowing them to spread all over the place! Some of them are quite heavy to use and need a bit of strength just to control them. I've seen quite a few very macho guys attack there allotment with a rotovator only to be left with a sea of weeds after a fortnight and give up completely!

Pro's and cons I suppose, but deffo not a panacea for all ills!

Little and often initial digging then adopt a heavy mulching 'no dig' regime for the rest of my life has worked for me!

[lottie dolly]

if you have any signs of mares /horse tail,NO,NO,NO,it will just chop them up into many more nightmare bits,i know first hand.

[zazen999]

If you do; please plan in your workload to go over the whole plot a several times in the following weeks to pick out the weeds that do sprout; they will have been chopped and will be easily picked out but don't leave it too long as they will take hold really quickly.

We found that our lottie [rotavated by the council 10 weeks ago now] is growing weeds like mad where we haven't covered or weeded [near the shed only]; if we had left it all, it would be the same as it was prior to the rotavation.

The bods next door have now rotavated, got a digger to turn it over, rotavated again, and again last week [that's 4 times in 10 weeks] - and not picked out one weed on the bits that aren't planted up - which means 2/3 of the whole plot is just allowed to grow back each time. I think they think that if they keep doing it the weeds will just give up - but I'm not so sure myself.

Another hint from experience, is to rotavate after a good rainstorm; it softens the ground and makes it much much easier. Contrary to popular opinion, rotavating is itself a big job; esp if you get a heavy duty tool - it is seriously hard going. We intend to never do it again; and to go with the 'plan it out, cover it up and dig as little as possible' school. Covering it up keeps the moisture in, which you need if it hasn't been cultivated in years and makes the digging of the roots out much easier.

I still remember the pain of the rotavation of our relatively small garden; and the joy of visiting the Indian down the road for our first meal out in our new location as there was no way I was cooking after that palaver...and the additional pain of my fortnightly sports massage expert as she tried to 'assist' me getting the pain out of my wrist and back. Don't like swearing on here so I'll let it go.

But, if that's what you need to do, then do it! It just needs following up regularly to get it in tip top shape.

[di]

if you're doing a vote then add me to the "not brigade"!we've not used,but our lottie neighbours have.yep,they got their plot "done" before us~despite us having ours nearly a year longer,but without being smug(promise!)ours is now a lot more manageable than theirs!anything he sows from seed gets lost amongst the thistles&bindweed.Seems that initially they're a good shortcut if your an othrwise busy person but from my experience then you're making more work for yourself in the long run with the multiplied weed roots.

[Cloud]

Rotivated my front garden several times over a period of weeks,not a single sign of any more couch grass

[Helofadigger]

As my hubby isn't a well man (he's 2% off end stage kidney failure) I do all the digging now and although I have a chronic back problem too (thankfully helped along with Mr.Codeine and Mr.Radox to name but a few) I am managing remarkable well in my digging adventures!

When we got our allotment last Monday we asked around for advice on the best way to start things off, we were told to do the groundwork right the first time round and it will save no end of hard work later on as most weeds grow faster than the plants or so it seems.

Judging by some allotments on our patch you can clearly see the ones that have been rotavated although where the allotmenteer isn't working the weeds seem to have reclaimed their area once more.

Hubby has managed to clear most of the site for burning later on (once dry enough) although we do have quite a few HUGE piles to burn bit by bit and I have managed to dig over maybe 18ft by 4ft althogether but at least it's weed free and boy I didn't realise how long those nettle roots were I think the biggest one so far has been 3ft long!

I think the advice given to me was correct if you can put in the extra time and pace yourself to do the clearing by hand then in the long term of things you will be rewarded with a tidy almost weed free plot.Good luck and happy gardenering!Hel.xxx.

[Matt.]

IF you have cleared the weeds I'd definitely go for it. If not be prepared for the weed comeback as others have mentioned. I think the key is the time of year. If you are ready to go with seedlings you need to get these in asap. Digging by hand will take too long so just get the job lot done. However, I have rotovated and semi regretted. It was good I got the soil workable quickly but I did suffer from horsetail quite bad. This year I slowly dug and its been much better. I have removed weed roots by hand and dug deeper than the machine does. By digging you get to know each sqaure inch of the soil so its better long term. Rotovating is a short term fix.

[Snadger]

Rotivated my front garden several times over a period of weeks,not a single sign of any more couch grass

You probably can't see it for all the mares tail and bindweed................