Advice for new grower please

[lloydy91]

First day on the allotment:

Strimmed grass and weeds

Covered two beds (didnt turn the soil) with plastic membrane. (dont know if thats a good thing to do?)

Dug a hole in the centre of the allotment as it is boggy, channeled some water from another boggy patch to the left of centre to the central hole. Dont know what me and my dad are trying to achieve by this hole? fill it with stones? channel it somewhere? advice please

Put plastic membrane over a patch of grass where a compost chain can be

don't know whether to put plastic membrane over the whole allotment as its been strimmed and kill everything off or do sections at a time.

Would love some advice to get the ball really rolling.

Thanks

[astraman1]

thats how i am tackling mine covered with black plastic as much ground as i could and just roll it back and dig then re dig and leave the plastic off what you have dug then once a week i just go back over if there are any couch/weeds coming back up

[roitelet]

Hi, welcome to the vine.

Covering the ground is a good idea but I wouldn't use plastic. It does not let the water through. Cardboard would be better and then pile compost able material on top to hold it down. The cardboard will eventually rot and the worms will pull the residue into the soil adding humus. The lack of light will weaken the perennial weeds and kill the annual ones and bit by bit you can dig the soil and remove the roots.

[lloydy91]

Thanks for the advice.

I was thinking off using cardboard over the rest off the plot. What should I do about the boggy patches?

Cheers

[veggiechicken]

Hi Lloydy and welcome
You could turn the boggy hole into a pond. It would attract frogs and toads who would deal with the slugs you're bound to have.
Celery likes wet ground too - if you like celery

[bario1]

Hi Lloydy,

You could have a pond where the main boggy patch is, and divert water from the other boggy areas using drainage channels filled with gravel? If they're boggy now then there must be a serious drainage issue, as we haven't had much rain lately (well not where I am, anyway). It may just be that you need to add more organic matter to your soil though, or build raised beds. Don't do anything too drastic just yet though, get some things planted for your own satisfaction and take it nice and slow with the rest.

[bario1]

Gah, beat me to it VC!!

[Bigmallly]

What should I do about the boggy patches?

Grow some Rice?.......................

[rary]

Hello lloydy what area do you come from as in the west of Scotland we have had it wet. If the wet area of your ground is a problem you could dig a deep hole, about 4ft. deep and dump in some large stones and use it as a soak away, plan out what you are going to do with the ground and dig trenches to feed into this, fill the trenches with gravel and use as paths, the soil you take out could be used for making raised beds, again helping the drainage problem.