Rotavating.

[Leif]

As said the grass will regrow if rotovated in, along with bindweed, couch grass etc. I made that mistake when manually digging a trench for a hedge. You could cover and leave, or glyphosate, wait, then rotovate. If there are no nasty weeds, maybe strip the turf, rotovate, dig out soil, put turf in hole, back fill hole. I'd be tempted to glyphosate, then rotovate in 4 weeks time. BTW I recently bought the £60 Aldi electric cultivator, I did a 9m by 1m bed 25cm deep today in compacted clay rich soil with flints, including one 18" across. I thought what the hell, £60, that's what I'd pay to hire one for a day.

[binley100]

I wouldn't be tempted to glyphosate ever.........

[SarzWix]

I'm a bit puzzled as to why you've revived a thread that's over a month old, to recommend weedkillers and your electric rotavator

[Leif]

I'm a bit puzzled as to why you've revived a thread that's over a month old, to recommend weedkillers and your electric rotavator

I thought the idea of a discussion forum was to discuss. You will find people replying to threads that are years old.

[SarzWix]

Yes, but if you read the OP, he says that his rotavator was booked for hire 'in a couple of weeks', and thus that time has already passed?

[Alison]

I wouldn't be tempted to glyphosate ever.........

Me neither, or rotivate but each to their own I suppose.

[Leif]

If you don't ever use glyphosate, I assume you would clear a large area by leaving it covered for a year? Hand digging a large area is not practical. I hand dug a 17m by 4m patch at the bottom of my garden, in parts to 1m deep, to clear weeds, including bramble, nettle and field bindweed, never again. My neighbour likened it to the Somme. I had goodness knows how many buckets of bindweed root.

[SarzWix]

You assume wrong as far as I'm concerned. I wouldn't waste a year leaving something covered and therefore not in use. I, and many others on here, have 'hand dug' (which I assume is what you call using a fork or spade?) 2 allotments.

[Martin H]

What SarzWiz says. Slow and steady, get the roots out of every forkfull, stay on top of the regrowth, you get there eventually. It worked for my first allotment and it will work for my new one, despite the clay and the couch and the brambles.

[Leif]

I do not have the spare time to dig 250 square meters of garden, which is what I need to do, especially since the soil is so hard that a spade is useless, and a fork slow going, as pushing it in 1" is hard work. I only managed to hand dig and weed the 17m by 4m patch thanks to a month unemployed. I can't understand the aversion to mechanical methods on this forum.

[Newton]

The aversion is because people have thought about the consequences of taking the easier route and decided not to for many good reasons already spelled out.......good luck with your plot......

Why don't you try a bit of both as an experiment.......it would be interesting to hear your results.......

Interestingly one of my plot neighbours was tilling with his mantis today. I was tempted to ask him to till one of my raised (no dig for the past 18 months) beds to make it nice and fluffy!

Another proponent of no dig was also around and I knew that if I'd have been tempted to rotorvate I wouldnt be able to explain why........

The reasons not to are overwhelming in my opinion.

[SarzWix]

I'm not totally against it, in some circumstances, and in fact own a 2-stroke Mantis. I wouldn't dream of using on an uncultivated plot, or on beds that I know to be troublesome in terms of pernicious weeds. Which means that out of 5 big beds on one plot I can only use it on 2 of them, the rest have a couch grass problem that I have no desire to multiply...

Glyphosate on the other hand, I wouldn't ever recommend. Not only does it have a risk to the health of the person applying it, its also been shown to lock up minerals in the soil and therefore seems pointless using it in areas you want to grow veg in. They, and you, kinda need those minerals...

[alldigging]

I was tempted to ask him to till one of my raised (no dig for the past 18 months) beds to make it nice and fluffy!

.

Is it not easy to plant into already?

[Leif]

Glyphosate has very low toxicity, so unless you drink it, it is quite safe. The study that shows minerals being locked up are contradicted by other studies, so no it has not been shown to lock up minerals in the soil. I look at all studies rather than pick the one I prefer. Generally I avoid using glyphosate on beds in my garden, since mulch often does the same job, and feeds the soil too, but I do not take a black and white view, and if the alternative is to manually dig and weed 250 square metres, I'll choose glyphosate. I was going to lay down a layer of hops - I get them from the brewery - but I am told that they merely kill the good plants, and feed couch grass, unless fabric is left down for a year. In the case I am referring too, it is a garden, and I am renovating a lawn, and I don't want fabric down for a year.

[Newton]

Yes it is.....but heavily mulched over winter. I think the rotorvated soil looks nice!