Novice ...

[FenBuff]

Hi all hope everyone is having a nice eve.
I'm off to the allotment tomorrow and I haven't touched it for almost two weeks . I just don't know where to start I have dug up a few patches but I think am gunna hire a rotavtor so it will be a blank canvas what does people think ???

[veggiechicken]

Don't rotavate unless your ground is clear of perennial weeds. Otherwise you'll chop up the weed roots and end up worse off than you started.

[Alison]

Personally I'd never rotivate as it would just cut up all the nasty roots I have which will just propagate even more of them. Two weeks isn't long at all at this time of year. Just set yourself a task and do it. If you're not ready to plant then maybe cover with card after clearing, in fact you can cover with card anyway and plant through as it will help to suppress the weeds.


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[FenBuff]

Ok do you think I'm better just using a fork and double dig and then fill it with horse manure?

[Kristen]

One time application of Roundup / Glyphosate and then rotavate in a couple of weeks when the weeds are dead?

[rustylady]

Ok do you think I'm better just using a fork and double dig and then fill it with horse manure?

For heaven's (and your back's) sake forget the double digging. By all means use a fork to get the weeds out - then plant something straight away into the bit you have cleared. Potatoes, shallots, onion sets for example.

Then go on and clear another bit and plant something else.

Manure needs to be really well rotted before using and I find it's better used as a mulch rather than digging it in.

[Two_Sheds]

Save yourself a lot of unnecessary work: don't dig or turn the soil over, it really doesn't need it. It's a habit that gardeners have picked up from farmers (who use ploughs because they can't hand weed a whole farm).

Just get planting

[Alison]

Save yourself a lot of unnecessary work: don't dig or turn the soil over, it really doesn't need it. It's a habit that gardeners have picked up from farmers (who use ploughs because they can't hand weed a whole farm).

Just get planting

Great advice

One time application of Roundup / Glyphosate and then rotavate in a couple of weeks when the weeds are dead?

Although you might want to read up on the use of glyphosate before you use it as there are a lot of us on this site that won't go near the stuff. Others are OK with it but you need to do a bit of investigation to make up your own mind.

[Kristen]

Although you might want to read up on the use of glyphosate before you use it as there are a lot of us on this site that won't go near the stuff. Others are OK with it but you need to do a bit of investigation to make up your own mind.

Fully agree. Shouldn't be used without first considering the issues, and I expect that many people growing vegetables are doing it in part / large part to be certain of the provenance of their produce. I certainly am

For anyone reading up I suggest specifically checking Monsanto's latest variants (although I am not sure they are readily available to Amateurs as yet?) as the toxic stuff is in the adjuvants (e.g. surfactants that make the chemicals "stick" to the leaf), rather than Glyphosate itself. Monsanto's newer products are using non-toxic adjuvants, and are safe for aquatic life (which they weren't before). Generic Glyphosate based weedkillers are, presumably, still using the original adjuvants which are toxic to aquatic animals and not exactly harmless in other regards too.

Opinions on using herbicides etc. vary, and up to folk to reach their own conclusions, just wanted to raise the point that Monsanto's Roundup, specifically, has got a lot less harmful very recently, and that may not be reflected in what comes up first in a Google search

The issues about whether large pharma, such as Monsanto, is good/bad/indifferent and whether by lobbies government they get away with X, Y and Z, and whether Glyphosate itself (the active ingredient) is good/bad/indifferent will continue ... and I certainly don't want to start a debating war on those points!

[drm1975]

One time application of Roundup / Glyphosate and then rotavate in a couple of weeks when the weeds are dead?

I was given this advice last night so im going to do it

[Alison]

I was given this advice last night so im going to do it

Just bear in mind that not all your weeds will be dead and you'll still get weeds anyway so it's not necessarily the easy option that many think it is.