Got my lottie today to rotavate or not?

[greengas]

Hi Everyone finally got my lottie today, been up there all day digging out dock leaves and various other weeds and strimming back the grass. Everything was about 4' high so the Wife and myself been flat out cleared 150 square yards to a good standard. My question is should I spend money hiring a rotavator to turn it all over or am I best using my trusted spade?
Sorry one other question does anyone know the cheapest place to hire them if I go down that route? Thanks in advance for any advice

[bluemoon]

I wouldn't. I'd dig a bit, strim and cover a bit, then when the weeds have died back deal with the covered bit and cover a bit more, hoeing the cultivated parts to keep on top of the weeds, if you see what I mean. Especially at this time of year you're not going to plant up a whole allotment, so much of it will be bare, but weeds will still come back and a rotovator chops the roots of perennial weeds into hundreds of little pieces and all can (and do) regrow into new plants. Take it steady and make sure each section is properly dug and weeded before you move on to the next.

You might consider putting a green manure on the parts which are dug, but not going to be planted up too.

Oh, and Congratulations on the new plot.

[Beetroot Bob]

AS above ....

Cover it all if you can and clear a bit a time by hand as you roll back the cover.

Below is the aftermath of rotavating a plot without clearing it. The peson who had the plot before us rotavated it at the end on March when it wasn't too bad. We'd cleared our 1/2 of the same plot by hand which took about 6 weeks in all (week ends only). It's now full of bind weed, small brambles and every other type of weed you could think of.

[SarzWix]

Gosh B-Bob If you manage to sort that without resorting to Round-Up, you have my utmost respect! A salutory lesson in the reasons not to use a rotavator on an un-cleared plot!

[greengas]

Thanks for the advice everyone, I think I will go down the route of cover and clear in sections! That piccy above looks very similar to what my plot looked like first thing this morning. I can not believe how much we achieved in our first day, my plan for tommorow will be to get some black plastic roll and start working my first section. I would like to to get hold of some scaffold planks 13' and 5' and split the plot with 13' by 5' raised beds. Once I have first bed in I will plant out then move on to the next section, lots of hard work but I cant wait

[hmk]

Our plot looked much the same. We strimmed and dug (five minutes to dig a row, 45 minutes to remove dock/dandelion/couch grass/thistle roots) and covered anything we knew we wouldn't get to before it regrew. After a year the covered area had nearly all dead roots in and the bit we were working is much better. The worst patch is where a helpful person showed us how easy rotivating is...

[zazen999]

We didn't have a choice, the council here rotavate all new plots when they let them out.


Great for us, as we put paths down, and worked hard on the weeds for the first year and now it is nicely under control [rotavating chops the weeds up which means yes you get more, but they do come out of the soil nicely if you keep on top of it], but our neighbour had theirs rotavated 5 times in the first 3 months and they could not keep up with the weeding and every time it got weedy they rotavated again, and the weeds were taller than me last summer.

[Snadger]

We didn't have a choice, the council here rotavate all new plots when they let them out.


Great for us, as we put paths down, and worked hard on the weeds for the first year and now it is nicely under control [rotavating chops the weeds up which means yes you get more, but they do come out of the soil nicely if you keep on top of it], but our neighbour had theirs rotavated 5 times in the first 3 months and they could not keep up with the weeding and every time it got weedy they rotavated again, and the weeds were taller than me last summer.

Which just adds credence to the saying "One years seeding equals seven years weeding"
And thats without all the rhyzomatous weeds that were just waiting for someone to chop them up and spread them all over the plot!

[greengas]

When the bloody rain stops I will get up lottie does anyone know cheapest place to buy black plastic roll? Once again thanks for all the tips

[geoff]

I definately wouldn't rotovate; as already mentioned, all it does is to replant the weeds; it looks great for 2 or 3 weeks, then worse than before.
Rotovating is not that easy to do on a plot that has been neglected and overgrown for a long time, it's more useful as a quick method of turning overestablished, weed - free, open texture soil.

There's not much you can plant now anyway, so think of preparing your plot over the next few months, ready for the spring. Newspaper and cardboard are a lot cheaper than buying membrane!

My plot was in a similar state a while ago. I arranged for my own delivery of manure, a whole trailer - load; ask the council allotment officer or other plot holders about getting manure. Then I mulched with newspaper & cardboard topped with the manure. It rotted down well, and I dug it in during spring, and my crops are doing well now

So clear an area and dig it over then mulch as described, then do another area, Also think about composting or burning the weeds you have removed - they contain the minerals and so on from your soil, so don't just dump them

[Alison]

I didn't rotivate despite being advised by some of the other plot holders that it was the way to go. Have a lot of bind weed / couch grass / marestail etc and did not want it broken up. Also have found it very easy to resist the round up route and have found that little and often weeding is keeping on top of the cultivated areas as does making sure your beds are full as soon as possible of things you actually want. I got the plot last autumn, just cut it back and covered over winter and then started properly clearing in about Feb / March. Now have 12 10' by 4' beds with plank edging which are really easy to keep looking good (weeded four of them in about 1.5 hours yesterday and I'd not done much to them for a couple of weeks). In addition, have spuds growing trough card which were planted in small holes in an area of the plot I've not yet had time to dig over. That area will obviously get dug over when I dig up the spuds. The thing I'd recomend the mostis to keep on top of strimming so that you don't get your weeds flowering over the beds so it's well worth getting hold of a decent strimmer if you can. Ours was in the sale at B&Q, it's not that good as it can be a bit temperental but it works. Anyway, in summary, don't rotivate and don't feel that you have to use chemicals, you don't and it's amazingly satisfying knowing that you've done it all with good honest sweat and hard work, am sure it makes the veggies taste better.........

[greengas]

Lottie day one picture by leftie71 - Photobucket

Here is a piccy of day one I will try and put day 2 up in a bit!

[Hazel at the Hill]

Can I just suggest that you plan your beds 4' wide not 5' - you'll have trouble reaching into the middle of a 5' bed unless you have the arms of a gibbon.

[greengas]

[IMG][/IMG]

After day 2!

[WillyNelson]

Nice work for 2 days. Is that bare ground under the plastic or did you just cut the weeds down?

My lottie was in a terrible state when we got it (see here) and we made the mistake of trying to clear too much ground at once and the weeds just came back bigger than before.

Before this spring I had half of the plot covered in plastic for about 18 months and when uncovered it was almost totally weed free. I started by only uncovering what I was going to dig over that day, which not only prevented new weed growth but kept the heavy clay damp so it was easier to turn than hard baked earth. Now I have that half prety much all planted up and the other half is covered in preparation for next year.

Now I just have to tackle the mess that was the old greenhouse...!