Archive for January, 2006

January 2006 and general over wintering advice

January 1st, 2006

  1. It’s a new year and although it’s cold and the soil is still quite wet, there are things we can be doing to give us a head start when spring arrives. The rents were due in October. This is the time when some of us give up but very few have on our site which is good news.
  2. Some of our plotholders are still new to allotments and are struggling to bring once derelict plots into order and productivity.
  3. If you are passionately organic and do not want the stain of using chemical weed killers on your conscience, then you must realise that you will have double the workload. Bear the burden of your faith bravely and get stuck in!
  4. Here is some basic advice:-
  • If someone has helpfully put black plastic on part of your plot to clear weeds, roll it back all at once, at your peril! It may look clear underneath but roots will not be dead. You’ll let in the rain and light and they’ll be off! Only roll back as much as you can realisticly dig in a session.
  • Use a spade for the initial dig on ‘virgin’ soil – NOT a fork! You have the roots of some of nature’s toughest customers firmly embedded in your plot! The three worst are bramble, couch grass and convolvulus. I said ‘worst’ because they all have colonising root systems. You need the spade to cut these as you dig. Use a fork and the roots will simply slide through and remain there.
  • You will save yourself a lot of later trouble if you take these roots out at this point. Shake the soil from them and put them on a piece of iron where they can’t regrow easily. Plan some way to be totally rid of them. Burning works! No matter how organic you are there is no co-existence with these thugs of the plant world. Brambles will puncture your flesh, couch will even grow through your potato tubers and convolvulus will completely smother big raspberry canes. Don’t put them in a heap on earth in another part of the plot. They’ll love that! Don’t try to compost them! Think annihilation!
  • The other way to prepare ‘virgin’ soil is to turn it all over, cutting roots but not removing them, then taking them out later when they start to shoot. This requires constant vigilance and will need a longer time frame than the first method although initially it is faster and not so tedious. If you’ve planted crops in this rooty soil they’ll have to compete for food, moisture and light. Some can but small seeds will stand no chance.
  • Don’t hire a mechanical cultivator and expect a miracle. These will bounce along the top of the ground and be useless unless you get one that is approaching the power of a small tractor. The usual cultivator that is available for hire will only cope with dug ground. It’s patience and perseverance that wins through.
  • There are ways to increase the work rate and the best of these is recruiting extra help form friends and family.
  • If you don’t know how or where to start use the WASHA email. Some of our experienced gardeners will help. Some of us have cultivators and will fine down your dug soil if asked.

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