How to prepare allotment?
Jordan Carter
Posts: 81
Hi everyone,
I have recently overtaken an allotment that clearly hasn't been cultivated for a few years, so was pretty overgrown, including bindweed and couch grass . I've managed to clear the ground cover ready to dig. The spades and fork barely went half an inch into the ground so I purchased a mattock which has made easy work of digging up the compacted soil. Ive vey also purchased a rotary sieve to how sieve out the roots and rocks rather than pick them out by hand, it's a lot quicker.
So my questions now are:
As the ground hasn't been cultivated for a while, I've decided that double digging would be the best option. I am making piles of the soil and then sieving it back into place. I then plan to cover it for the winter. Would this be the best way to do it? Or would it be best to double dig, cover it for the winter and then sieve it just before sowing? Or sieve before and after? Or is there another way to go about it?
I should note that I do not plan on having raised beds, I'm planning on have beds separated by grass pathways. Also, is it essential to add some sort of compost / manure to the soil, or will vegetables grow well without these additions?
I appreciate any help! I've attached a couple of photos so you can see the soil (before being sieved).
Posts
As it a new patch Jordan I'd add as much manure as you can get hold hold of especially as you are leaving it fallow over winter. This will give it the best chance next year. The addition of some bonemeal and fish bone and blood will add to it and over winter the worms and micro organisms will get to work. By next spring you will have a great place to plant almost anything you wish to grow.
Also that it should be left to decompose for at least 1-2 years. I obviously plan to start planting in the spring so won't have this long to wait...
Any advice on this issue?
And so it would be best not to sieve at the moment? Maybe in spring?
I am glad to hear that I am not the only one to dig a full spit deep as everyone on my allotment site seems to only dig the top 3 inches or so, I put this down to either they are worried about digging into the subsoil, they are worried about forming a sump, they are concerned about unearthing long buried weed seeds or they are just plain lazy. Last winter I dug my plot as usual turning the soil over leaving it in as large clods as I could so that the frosts could break it down but the frost failed to arrive, this meant that by spring I had to break the soil up by hand also with all the rain I am afraid that a lot of nutrient was washed out of the soil. This year I have started to dig over the ground as I remove the crops and will shortly be adding some green manure in the form of tares which will be dug into the soil next spring this I am told will fix the nutrients in the soil so that the rains can't wash it away. As for animal manure I always thought that it was a good source of adding nutrient to the soil but now understand that while it may improve the structure of the soil most of the nutrient is lost in the rotting down process, add to this the possibility of importing weed seeds or worse still herbicide to my plot I have decided to go down the compost and green manure route.