Clearing a field

[Masco&Bongo]

Hi guys

We're lucky enough to own the paddock behind our garden, and have decided to use part of it to plant on next year (and put chickens on too!)

Currently its covered in grass, with the odd weed/thistle/dock leaf scattered through. We've mown it right down (using my DH's new toy - a 2nd hand ride on mower bought this week), but are going to have to clear some of it to make beds.

Questions:

Is this better done in autumn, when the weeds/grass aren't growing as fast?

We're going to dig it over (using the technique from Monty Don) and place all the turves face down in the trenches and rot them that way). Will this work? Will we be able to plant in this in the spring, or will the grass/weeds come back?

I wasn't sure whether to plant green manure in the paddock (which means digging the whole thing over!). Is it worth it, considering its already grass covered anyway?

Cheers!

[alicej]

Hello there,

Lucky you to have your own field!

I think you should probably just start digging whenever you're ready, as you'll have to do a lot of it. I wouldn't bother with a green manure as it will be fertile enough if it's been left fallow for a while. What I WOULD do is cover the areas you've dug.

Cardboard is great but you need a lot of it and it has to be held down with something or it'll all blow away in the wind when it's dry. I covered mine with a layer of plastic (ripped open bin liners) and then a layer of carpet, but some people won't use carpet because it might have nasty chemicals in it. Works a treat though. Also, putting carpet on top of the plastic stops it all splitting, as most plastics are degraded by light.

Depending on what your soil is like I would dig in some soil improvement as you go along, as it takes a lot of digging to get things mixed in well. You'll need to dig it all over again when you take the covers off in spring as the soil will have compacted a bit, so if you've put manure etc in at the first dig then it will get mixed in twice before your crops go in.

Good luck!
Alice

[hedgewizard]

Beware badgers, as any kind of sheet mulch gets ripped up to look for slugs. That aside, you can grow potatoes straight into a sheet mulch so that's one quarter of your rotation taken care of... they're good for clearing ground.

If you build a chicken tractor the chooks can do most of the clearing for you, turning grass and roots into poo and even raking it in. Move the tractor along a bit and dig only as much as you have to. Really the only bed that needs to be double dug is your roots bed, the others may need less depending on the condition of the soil.

Cover any worked ground as weeds will colonise it almost instantly, even in winter. Have fun!

[Mancblue]

We're waiting for news on an allotment any day now (fingers crossed) and reading these posts has answered a few questions already.

Thank you.

[Shirley]

I like the chicken tractor advice!!

Good luck with the allotment Colin!! (see, I read the birthday thread too - and 'getting old' my foot!!! )