Allotment clearance - from a complete novice!!

[claral]

Hi,

I am new to allotments, I have just moved from central London to East Sussex and managed to get an allotment from the parish council. I've strimmed the large plot back, twice now and installed the shed and bought some rabbit proof fence and posts! I am now at the difficult step, the digging!!

I was going to hire a rotovator to dig the soil up and hoped to dig the weeds out. The plot was very overgrown and has lots of weeds.

Last week I spoke to a plant hire specialist who told me that the rotovator would still be very hard work and wont really clear anything, he said he had done work for councils on allotments and said that the only way to clear the plot would be to scrape the top soil off, he has offered to do this for me for £100 (not a lot more than a weekend rotovator hire + del). The plot is 8m wide by 7m long. As I have plenty of space I assumed I could keep all the top soil at one side and dig it back in to the plot over the coming years when it composts.

I like the idea of a scrape, it gives me a nice blank starting place. It also sounds like an easy option!! My concern is, how much does he scrape? and what is left underneath? I assume he won’t take all the top soil away to the side, just the weed covering and most of the roots. Will I have anything left to plant in? Or do I have to replace what was scraped off? It’s a country site, I doubt the land has been anything other than agricultural or woodland in the past.

Is the top soil scrape a good or bad idea? I love the thought of having an allotment, but I have to be realistic, I have two young kids, I won’t be able to spend lots of time preparing this site if i want to plant inthe spring.

I also have a scaffold merchant by my house who will sell me boards at 35p a foot for raised beds which I think looks good and makes maintenance easier.

Any advice would be appreciated, I am a complete novice so I won’t take offence to any really basic tips, I am very grateful for all help!

Thanks,

Alastair

[Jeanied]

Yikes - hold your horses! What weeds do you have, first? You'd be doing a mighty deep scrape to get rid of some weed roots! You'd end up with no topsoil at all and I bet the person who scrapes for you would make a profit on it! The only way I can think of making it all clear is to nuke it with weedkiller. Now the other grapes will have loads to add!

[Mrs Jackson]

I've got 2 young children too (16 months and nearly 4 years) so I can really appreciate the problem with lack of time! I'd recommend going to a local supermarket and getting hold of a load of cardboard boxes, then finding a supply of rotted manure. Strim the plot again, cover with cardboard, water it then cover with manure. I'll bet it costs less than £100 and it'll help improve the soil and get rid of the weeds over the winter. Maybe just dig one area by hand so you can do overwintering crops (onions, garlic, broad beans, etc).

Mrs J

[SAFIA]

hi there congratulations on your allotment, i personally wouldnt scrape as you will lose your topsoil as you are thinking of raised beds just clear an area at a time for each bed, you really dont have to do it all at once i understand completely about having two young children and working it makes time limited but i assure you if you aim to clear enough space for 1 or 2 beds a week (an afternoons or 2 evenings work) then by spring youll be almost there, and dont leave your beds bare get your overwinter cabbages and onions etc in, just relax its not a race and enjoy.

[eastkentspur]

my allotment is a new plot on grazing land that was top scraped by the council before i took it over, it hasn't stopped plenty of weeds reappearing but they've been easy to clear, the soil remaining is very chalky and only a spade deep but i do have a huge pile of topsoil to fill the raised beds that i've decided to use

[jaykay]

Hi and welcome. Lucky you in getting a plot so quickly after moving. 8m x 7m is a manageable size and you should be able to clear it if you put in a bit of time and effort throughout the autumn. Do you want to grow in beds, or work the plot as a 'traditional' allotment with rows? The bed system might make things easier for you - work out where you want your beds to go, mark with pegs and string, and work on clearing the areas one by one. It's easier to clear 2m x 1m than tackle the whole thing at once. Depending on how close to the ground you can strim, you could cover the areas to be your paths with black membrane to stop the weeds growing back, just bend wire into u shapes to peg it in place.
I think you might regret having had the plot scraped and losing valuable top soil.
Good luck!

[rob the roller]

It is difficult to comment without knowing the nature of the weeds, but if it was me I would be looking to strim or cut the weeds down to the ground and rake everything up for composting or burning. Dig up any obvious big roots, such as bramble. Flatten any high bumps and use the earth to fill any holes if you want to, but it is not strictly necessary. Then cover the whole area with a mulch of cardboard cartons or newspaper (use several thicknesses). This will suppress the weeds by cutting them off from the sunlight. Lay out your beds. Use your £100 to buy in a load of compost, or if you can get well rotted barnyard manure, all the better. Fill the beds as as deep as you can. This should give you a head start. The thicker the mulch, and the deeper the fill, the less chance of the weeds breaking through. If you need or want to mix, use manure where you intend to plant hungry crops such as potatoes and compost where the carrots will go, or put a layer of compost on top of barnyard manure. Adapt according to need. Hoe or cut any weeds as soon as they show through. Eventually they will die out if you don't give them a chance to get through to the sunlight. The mulch will rot and be recycled into the ground by your worms. After a year or so you should have good deep friable soil and no sign of the mulch, but you must keep ahead of the weeding. A rotivator will leave the land looking good briefly but the weeds will quickly grow back worse than ever. I have never heard of scraping, but if you take away the topsoil surely you would need to replace it with something? Plus many weeds can go down 5 feet or more.

Best of luck

Rob

[eastkentspur]

I think you might regret having had the plot scraped and losing valuable top soil.
Good luck!

you don't actually lose the top soil though and in some ways it is a big help if you plan to bulid and fill raised beds

[Storming Norman]

I understand that you want to get this done but it's not a race and some digging will always need to be done on part of the plot each year so you will need to start on this somehow.

Most advice on this site suggest doing part of it only and getting some success underway - that is really a good idea. Your plot is big enough not to need to be fully ready in one go, in fact too much dug/scraped and left unplanted will be weeds again soon enough.

Personally I would dig a small area to help me make this decision. This will tell you how deep the topsoil is, and how deep the weeds are, what you are tackling, and how difficult it is to dig your soil.

I would be wary of removing topsoil, its the best part of the plot, and you need it to make your raised beds. It will need to be moved back eventually and it's very heavy!

Are you on chalk clay or sandy soil? - this also influences what you are doing, and when.

My plot is smaller than yours and now covered with raised beds. They are fantastic, the paths between need to be properly made to make it work in winter, but they have their disadvantages and take a while to build.

Consider some of your plot being traditional allotment beds or strips for squash/pumpkin [ground cover crops] or those that need digging such as potatoes. These do not need such detailed attention as the crop cleans the weeds to a degree. You can put more detailed effort into these areas next autumn if you need.

I'm sorry to say but nothing really makes this part of taking on an allotment easier - using weedkiller was my option then digging but I did this in spring. You could make more work for yourself in the long run with a scrape - cardboard/manure is a pretty good option but requires more patience. £100 is a lot of money and you can get a lot of well rotted manure delivered for this sum.

What do you other allotment holders recommend?

[Two_Sheds]

I did mine bit by bit, clearing a patch then immediately planting it up, or covering it (with cardboard weighted down with sods and clods).

(if you have a Search, you will find many, many methods and opinions).

I have to say, even when you get the plot fairly clear and workable, it is still a lot of work to maintain. Weeds are coming up all the time, and they grow faster than your crops.

[zazen999]

If I had this conundrum......I'd buy the scaffold boards that I needed; and anything else that I needed to make the beds; then put them on the ground where they are going to go; put weed fabric down to cover the paths [out of the £100]; make the raised beds up and cover each with cardboard; and spend the rest of the £100 on covering most of the beds with well rotted manure. The remaining small area [for next year's carrots and parsnips], I'd dig the soil out, mix it with coffee grounds and sand and sieve the topsoil back in [with any home made compost as well], so that you are ready to go there. Then, in the spring, plant through the manure/card and remove any weeds that grow as they grow next year.

But I don't believe in removing the top soil. And you'll always have weeds, it's just a case of managing them out. Oh, and I'd buy straw for the paths, so that you aren't walking on the weed fabric all the time.

[trolleydolly]

If I had this conundrum......I'd buy the scaffold boards that I needed; and anything else that I needed to make the beds; then put them on the ground where they are going to go; put weed fabric down to cover the paths [out of the £100]; make the raised beds up and cover each with cardboard; and spend the rest of the £100 on covering most of the beds with well rotted manure. The remaining small area [for next year's carrots and parsnips], I'd dig the soil out, mix it with coffee grounds and sand and sieve the topsoil back in [with any home made compost as well], so that you are ready to go there. Then, in the spring, plant through the manure/card and remove any weeds that grow as they grow next year.

But I don't believe in removing the top soil. And you'll always have weeds, it's just a case of managing them out. Oh, and I'd buy straw for the paths, so that you aren't walking on the weed fabric all the time.

Zazen, you mention using straw to cover the weed suppressant. How thick would you need to cover it, and how long does it last? I was thinking of using wood shavings instead.

Regards
T

[zazen999]

Zazen, you mention using straw to cover the weed suppressant. How thick would you need to cover it, and how long does it last? I was thinking of using wood shavings instead.

Regards
T

If you have a look in the Growing Techniques board, go right to the start and look at Supersprout's Allotment. It lasts as long as it lasts, depending on how often you walk on it and how bad the weather is.

[Jeanied]

On the topic of clearing weeds - it can be done, but only for the half hour in between you digging one root out and the next one deciding to sprout unseen or that little weed seed germinating! All the other wise grapes are proposing methods of working with this fact and systematically sorting out your patch a bit at a time.

My very weedy and overgrown allotment has been gradually cleared since May with the help of a very hardworking friend who dug it over for me bit by bit - now I'm at the stage of just having to hoe it over to keep on top of things! So chuffed

One other tip - as soon as you have one bit clear put something in it- weeds love bare earth and undo you work as soon as they can.

[trolleydolly]

If you have a look in the Growing Techniques board, go right to the start and look at Supersprout's Allotment. It lasts as long as it lasts, depending on how often you walk on it and how bad the weather is.

Thanks for that Zazen, Supersprout's Lottie looks like in idea I’ll have to adopt!!
T