What Next??

[ShaunWard]

Hi, I am new to the whole allotment, grow your own and general gardening world but me and my wife were very keen to start growing our own fruit and veg so have now got an allotment.

the allotment started out like this, the back bit is what I'm going to talk about

A guy from another allotment has a tractor so has rotavated this for us, which now looks 100% better. But if you turn up some of the soil it still has big clumps of weeds underneath.

What do I do now, do I still have to turn up all the soil and dig out the weeds, should I cover the area in tarp for the rest of the year?

This has just been and we still have a section at the top that we can work on this year so time is not really an issue.

Can someone please help.
Thank you

[Tripmeup]

Hi, I am new to the whole allotment, grow your own and general gardening world but me and my wife were very keen to start growing our own fruit and veg so have now got an allotment.

the allotment started out like this, the back bit is what I'm going to talk about [ATTACH=CONFIG]43612[/ATTACH]

A guy from another allotment has a tractor so has rotavated this for us, which now looks 100% better. But if you turn up some of the soil it still has big clumps of weeds underneath.

What do I do now, do I still have to turn up all the soil and dig out the weeds, should I cover the area in tarp for the rest of the year?

This has just been and we still have a section at the top that we can work on this year so time is not really an issue.

Can someone please help.
Thank you

If it is the bit at the bottom of the picture, then get stuck in and dig/loosen the clumps into a more workable texture....Pull lumps of dead grass and/or weeds as you go.. You will then have it ready to plant up in next month or so (depends on what you wish to put there) and then just pull/hoe weeds as they grow throughout the season....
If you chop up the weeds, you can throw them into compost bin or as I do, back on the bed....

[ShaunWard]

Thanks for the reply, does it matter about getting every last little weed up or just concentrate on the big ones.
Take me ages to do a patch a few weeks ago and didn't know if I was wasting my time?


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[rustylady]

Depends on what the weeds are really. You need to get things like dock and dandelion out.

[Two_Sheds]

should I cover the area in tarp for the rest of the year?

Crikey no! Get planting, get that bare ground covered*: if you don't, the weeds will quickly colonise it again



* I use a combination of wet newspapers & green manures to cover any soil that doesn't have a crop on it

[ShaunWard]

Will sound like a proper novice now but what is classed as green manure?


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[Two_Sheds]

https://www.greenmanure.co.uk/advice...-green-manure/