New overgrown allotment

[haza1981]

Hi Guys,

I have purchased an allotment and it is so overgrown you wouldnt believe. This has weeds over 6ft high. I have tackled nearly half of it with an industrial strimmer and I am going to do the rest this weekend. What should I do next? I have read that lots of people blast with glycophosphate and leave for a while. Will this work with me as some of the weeds/bushes are like trees!! what should I do? Also where is the best place for black polythene to cover with? All seems very expensive and I dont fanncy stealing old wet carpet out oof back lanes and sticking in in the car! HelpPlease?

[leoblackcat]

mine is like this too! - the council came round and strimmed it for me and digging is fairly easy going if i go down after it has been raining! I have cleared one long bed and I am thinking about putting black plastic over some of the rest. - will be interested to hear comments on a good place to buy black plastic.

Good Luck!

[SarzWix]

Glyphosate won't work on trees and bushes I don't think... And at this time of year it might be a waste of time anyway - it works best on things that are in 'active growth' and a lot of the weeds will be dying back now.

I think the best thing would be to cut everything back with the strimmer as you are doing, and then divide the plot into manageable sections and start digging it. If you cover what you've dug with cardboard and muck, it will suppress weeds and feed the soil while you're digging the rest. Once the weeds start growing again in Spring, you can decide then whether to spray any unfinished bits or regrowth.

A good place for weed suppressant is Garden Warehouse: Ground Cover and Membranes - mulch, weed control, phormisol or big cardboard boxes opened out do a good job, also Harrod Horticultural do some paper mulch on a roll which is good to put under a layer of muck.

[haza1981]

Great advice!! hope it keeps coming!

[oldie]

You will find lots of us have had similar situations and all give similar advice. Take it bit by bit. I found cardboard so useful but have also used a thick layer of straw which can be bought cheaply. Kaysdiscountgarden.co.uk do reasonable deals on ground cover and as we approach the end of the main season you may find other bargain offers - local garden centre, B&Q and Wickes are worth a look.

[Two_Sheds]

as said above, you need to apply Glypho in late spring, when the plants are full of green leaf. It's the leaves that absorb the poison. However, the roots don't always die ... mine had 4 or 5 sprayings, and came back again.

Plants need light to grow. If you block the light, they weaken and die. This is the principle behind mulching.

Good free mulches are: wet newspapers / broken cardboard boxes. You'll need to weight them down with some soil or something.

Unlike plastic, the paper/card actually improves the soil.

[jackie j]

Dont use carpet as the foam backed ones leak chemicals into the ground. We are not allowed any carpet on our site.

[Guzzik]

Divide into managable chunks, dig and weed, then dig and weed then ...........? After that, all it takes is a hoe to keep the little new weeds down. I had my plot in your plots condition 7 weeks ago, now it is clear. All told I have spent around 8 ours spread over the weeks just weeding. I now spend maybe and hour or so a week on the hoe to keep the little buggers down.

I am afraid this will be an ongoing job, even after one has used paper, cardboard, plastic sheeting etc. Weeds have magical properties and appear over night regardless

[geoff]

Your question occurs regularly in this forum, so have a browse through previous threads or do a search

You won't be able to grow much till spring, so there's no need to panic; it has taken months or years for your plot to get in a poor state , so you're not going to clear it in a few days

Strimming and mulching is a good idea. Cardboard and newspaper are good and free, then top that with as much manure as you can get; ask stables, or fellow plotholders, and try to get a whole trailer - load for yourself. It will all rot down by the spring, then you can dig it over and weed at the same time. Remove the packing tape and plastic lables from the cardboard first. The stables I used were glad to get rid of the muck; it was free, but I gave the driver a fiver for his trouble

The previous tennant of my plot used carpets. Apart from being against the rules, 3 years later I'm still digging out bits of it!

Don't bother with a rotovator, they're not that easy to use on compacted, densly weedy soil, and they just replant the weeds; I know beacause I've done it!

Just take it steadily; and it's better to clear a small area well than to wear yourself out trying to do the whole plot, and end up doing it poorly

When you get to the interesting bit of planning next year's crops, you will read that some plants do not like manured soil. Don't worry about the manure you have put down as a mulch. That advice is for established gardens, you need to add manure to bring it back up to a minimum standard. And don't throw out all the weeds you remove, they contain all the minerals and nutrients they have taken from your soil, and you will also need to re - establish the texture and organic content. So compost the weeds, preferably in their own heap for at least a year. And if you can't compost them, burn them and spread the ash

Have fun, and reward yourself with frequent trips to the pub!

[rana]

Take the opportunity to put aside an area for a compost heap and start it off with a stack of manure. By next spring this should be sufficiently rotted to use directly as a soil improver.

[General Woundwort]

I have read that lots of people blast with glycophosphate and leave for a while.

Watch out for exploding trousers.

[basketcase]

Watch out for exploding trousers.

It isn't funny really...

[haza1981]

Thanks guys. OK so far (before I read not to carpet) I have carpeted half the allotment. Now I have loads of cardboard to do the rest. I have been told not to use the weeds as compost so I dont think I will do that(dont want to take any risks. I did use weedkiller on part but it was proving too expensive. Used a bit of washing up liquid with it to make it stick. My trousers have not exploded so I think i'm safe.

[Alison]

My plot was a state this time last year when I took it over. We strimmed it all back and covered most of it for the winter and then started digging in early spring. Didn't use any weed killer as it was a route I didn't want to go down and to be honest I don't think I'm behind somebody I know who did. Have cultivated about half the plot this year and have plans for the rest next. One very good thing was to strim back one area, remove the woody weeds and cover with card. I then planted potatoes through holes in the card and left to itself. Got a really good crop off them and the soil was pretty easy to dig over this weekend. Would recomend to anybody.

[chriscross1966]

Mine was in that sort of state when UI got it this spring. Dug some of it through for things like onions, carrotsd, beets and peas/beans but grew a fair crop of potatos by getting some builders bags off freecycle and filling with a mix of soil and manure (also freecycle) and planting six spuds in each. Also did well with some sweetcorn and red onions but less well with maize and beans. Blight got the tomatos. The bags helped hold down rthe weedmulch on the rest of the soil. Also planted things like squash and pumpkins through the mulch onto small (squash) or big (pumpkin) piles of manure. Have a good crop too, so will probably do again but in a more structured way and now Ihave a source of free manure, with a lot more manure too

Don't try to do it all at once but I found the bag technique gave me a quick cheat that worked well, try to start off with naturally pest resistant/easy strains to avoid too much heartache, the Sarpo potatos and carrot Resistafly leap to mind,as does beetroot Boltardy....Chat to the other folk on the site... they might be a bit fixed in their ways and find some of the things you do strange (I had 70-somethings visiting my onions to see the Kelsaes and Catawissa's) but they will know a lot about what works for all the classic veg. Try some wierd stuff.... funny gourds, oddball east european tomatos, italian heirloom onions etc... swap for seeds with other folk online, there's a thriving swap area on here and also over at allotments4all.... remember you have space to play with so the pumpkin that would take over your garden in no time will be fine romping around on the compost heap. Don't grow too many courgettes... plant 10 seeds in pots, plant out the best four or five, once they get going chop it down to the three best plants, give away the plants you don't use. Module sowing takes the pain out of bad germination......

chrisc