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New Allotment, Heavy Clay Wet Soil, Advice Please

traceywebb62traceywebb62 Posts: 3
in Problem solving
Hello, After being on the waiting list for more than 7 years I now have an allotment, 8 m x 13m, south facing, my dream was to have a miniature wild flower meadow, I have taken out all the chest high weeds & all the 'experts' advise leaving for 2 years, the committee will not allow this so I have to start work soon, I think I may have to plan, create walkways & have raised beds but this sadly is not what I wanted. any advice from all you lovely gardeners would be greatly appreciated, thank you in advance. Tracey
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  • stuart.dotstuart.dot Posts: 127
    I think the committee are probably worried about seeds blowing everywhere and turning everything into a meadow! Allotments are essentially for cultivation  :)
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  • Jason-3Jason-3 Posts: 391
    Sounds like a perfect spot for a mixture of brassicas, greens, fruit trees and roses. I just don't see how a wild flower meddow is practical on your soil type or more importantly a communal allotment-just my take
  • PosyPosy Posts: 3,601
    Why do you want a meadow instead of an allotment? Or rather, why have you waited seven years if you just want to let it go wild? It sounds like it was already on the way to being a wildflower meadow, anyway!
  • quarteracrefarmhelpquarteracrefarmhelp Posts: 16
    a really good thing for clay soils is gypsum, it aids the clay in bonding to other things and so helps break it up. common source is wall lining boards (the ones that have paper on either side and white chalk like substance in the middle). Sometimes at a local hardware store they sell it in bags (generally a biproduct from the wall board factory).
    It is a relatively neutral product so can be spread around liberally, usually at same time as some lime , also a great additive for wet clay soils. I mix both through compost and hoarse manure . I moved to this section two years ago, was a holiday house for twenty years before we got it , just had grass . So top soil was an inch thick then straight clay, already the clay is mixing with the manure/compost/ lime/ gypsum , worms are back and we have topsoil three times what we started with. Clay is highly productive once broken up. Good luck and have fun with your allotment, very exciting .

    Grow it yourself, it's worth it in the end. . . 
  • traceywebb62traceywebb62 Posts: 3
    Sincere thanks to everyone who responded, with a variety of comments, apologies for the delay in replying, this is because I only have limited access to the internet.
    Thank you everyone.
    Happy Gardening.
    Tracey
  • quarteracrefarmhelpquarteracrefarmhelp Posts: 16
    exciting time for you , good luck and happy growing !
    Grow it yourself, it's worth it in the end. . . 
  • Nanny BeachNanny Beach Posts: 8,719
    Agree with the other poster, you wanted an allotment, waited 7 years and want a wildflower meadow, I can clearly see the other allotmenteers not wanting the seeds.  You can have a compremise, (if its allowed) have your raised beds,paths made from what ever material you choose, and perhaps they would allow some wilsflowers to be grown round the edges, for pollinators, if they have a problem with the seeding they may allow you to do this if your remove seeds heads, thinking field poppies,cornflowers,nigella, that sort of thing.
  • debs64debs64 Posts: 5,184
    I have flowers and veggies and fruit on my allotment but a wild flower meadow would not be allowed. To be honest it would look ridiculous in such a small space surrounded by green houses and runner beans on other plots. Maybe a few wild flowers in pots spread around would be a compromise. 
  • ZeroZero1ZeroZero1 Posts: 577
    Your in a catch 22. If you truly want wild flowers you may need POOR soil not rich soil - depending on what flowers you want. The advice given above is to enrich the soil. There are two basic types clay wild flowers and chalky soil wild flowers. You could set aside only one part of the allotment for this and grow some veg/flowers on the rest. Grass will be a problem (couch grass) it will try to dominate, and the rest of your allotment holders will not thank you for encouraging it. There is a plant that sucks at it's roots (a wild plant) but I can't remember its name. 
    In the good old days meadows were fertilised by animals, and were grazed or scythed if you were to imitate that you might have some luck.

    Some allotment holders may fail to understand, but hey. it's your allotment.
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