Weed control

[KTM250]

Hi All, I am in the process of clearing my allotment and once I've got it down to ground level I was wondering whats best to cover it over the winter, and also should I rotorvate or dig ??.

Is it best to use membrane or can I use black / blue or green visqueen, its quite big and don't want to spend alot on ground covering as I'm also going to have to put a fence up as well,

any advice as always is welcome

many thanks

Darren

[Johnny Appleseed]

My gut reaction is that digging by hand and removing weeds / roots by hand will give the best results but I rotovated a large area last year.

It was very quick and easy. I picked up all the weeds and roots I could see and rotovated two or three times more as odd areas started to grow back.

I thought the greenery chopped up by the rotating tines of the rotovator would also act as a green fertilizer for the soil.

There were lots of weeds growing back - but I don't know if they were wind borne or already in my soil.

I only chose to rotovate because of time constraints. If I wanted the excercise and the area was manageable, I'd think about digging it.

[MaureenHall]

I'd rough dig it to expose the roots to the frosts and kill them off and to break up the clumps. Then I'd work out what was going to be planted/sown where and start thoroughly de-weeding and de-rooting the bits that are going to be used first. Think I'd work out where my spuds are going, cover it with a layer of cardboard and manure to be going on with.

Don't quote me on any of this, I've only had my lottie since June But that's where I'd start anyway

[KTM250]

Thanks for the replies, think I'm going to cover it in plastic membrane and dig it as and when I can, at least part of it will be ready for spring and growing on next year.

Darren

[zazen999]

ground covering for free = cardboard or newspapers.