Is this normal??

[secretgardener]

Mine was covered in carpet when I took it over too - that somehow managed to let weeds through from the bottom up, but not let rainwater through - result = one overgrown flooded plot! Luckily I did get help from the guys on the association to get rid of it all or it would have taken hours, so I second the advice above about asking for help with it! Good luck!

[gothmaga]

Thanks everyone I will definitely ask about assistance and thank my blessings its only carpet from the sounds of what others have found!!

[sparrow100]

I have masses of carpet buried on mine too. I've found it's pretty easy to scalp the top off with the spade and usually it then comes up pretty easily. I'd get rid of it soonish as red ants seem to like building nests in any undisturbed piles - learned that the hard way!

One of the carpets was red and had completely disintegrated. That's been less fun. Am still riddling out clumps of red fuzzy bits each time I turn the soil. Fortunately that's all I've had to deal with on this plot.

[gothmaga]

Thanks sparrow100 will get it removed as soon as possible then!!

[MadMackem]

Carpet is a big annoyance for me. Trying to clear my first plot was made worse by loads of disintegrating carpet fibres under the soil. Mind you, the sheet of buried chicken wire wound me up a bit too....

The back of my plot borders onto the boundary fence. As the plot has been unused for 5 years - the boundary fence became the allotment 'tip'. I'm digging out carpet, bricks, 3ftx3ft concrete slabs, old mowers - everything. Luckily the council said, if I make a pile of it on the corner of my plot, they do a 'one off' free rubbish removal for new plot holders.

[purplekat]

Yeah, supposedly banned now but my plot was absolutely full of it. Took all last winter to dig up, luckily we had a communal skip that I got rid of most of it in, but someone took half of it back out to use on their plot! Absolute nightmare to get out if it's been there a while, good luck!

[KevinM67]

Yep, sadly a regular occurrence when you take over a long neglected plot.

I had masses of the stuff, with grass/weeds growing all through it. It was one of the most strenuous jobs I had when I took the plot on.

A few years later, I'm still digging up tufts of the pink monster.