Having used glyphosate on my very overgrown, stony and neglected
allotment three times over the past 5 weeks, I am reasonably happy
that I can now safely start to turn over the soil without digging in
viable weeds. Although there are still some bits of green showing, I
feel sure that they must be dying. This patch of land hasn't been
cultivated for years, and is pretty hard going, so I'm hiring a Honda
power digger next weekend. The hire company have advised me to water
the ground thoroughly before use to make the crust easier to
penetrate. The digger is advertised as being able to dig to a depth
of 8". As soon as possible after doing this, I'm proposing to sow
phacelia as green manure.

Any comments on my plan, or does it sound straightforward?


Ken Cohen

(ken cohen) wrote in message . com...
Any comments on my plan, or does it sound straightforward?

If you've not used a rotovator before they can be quite tricky, and
hard on the back. Why not hire a man as well? One of my local
gardening contractors would do that in an hour and a half for 15 quid,
and the hire of the machine round here would be more than twice that.

ken cohen wrote:
Having used glyphosate on my very overgrown, stony and neglected
allotment three times over the past 5 weeks, I am reasonably happy
that I can now safely start to turn over the soil without digging in
viable weeds. Although there are still some bits of green showing, I
feel sure that they must be dying. This patch of land hasn't been
cultivated for years, and is pretty hard going, so I'm hiring a Honda
power digger next weekend. The hire company have advised me to water
the ground thoroughly before use to make the crust easier to
penetrate. The digger is advertised as being able to dig to a depth
of 8". As soon as possible after doing this, I'm proposing to sow
phacelia as green manure.

Any comments on my plan, or does it sound straightforward?

If it's anywhere near as hard as our land is at the moment I think
you'll certainly need to water the land. I think I'd really prefer to
postpone the digging until things are damper. The risk with watering
it is that you'll end up with a shallow mud slick.

--
Chris Green )

"David Hill" wrote in message ...
I would also go with getting someone in to do it,
They will know their machine
Have a more powerful machine than you could get
Charge you for the hours worked, not the days of hire for the machine.
You can watch and learn so that if you hire a machine in the future you will
A/ have a good idea of how best to use it
B/ you will be working on ground that is easier.

A few years ago my Howard gem was out of action and I had to hire a machine
from local hire shop.
The job took me almost 3 days with their machine rather than about 6 hours
with my Gem.
Felt like digging the ground with a tea spoon instead of a spade.

OK, I've checked out the cost of getting someone to rotivate it. It's
only about 150 square yards but I'm getting quotes of between £250 to
£450, which seems excessive. On the other hand, if I hire a machine
from the local HSS hire shop, taking petrol and transport costs into
account, it would cost me about £100 to have the machine for the
weekend, which is also quite a lot.

One interesting thing which emerged is that there is something called
"Breakthrough" or "Breakout" which apparently you mix with water and
spray on the ground 24 hours before rotivating. It's supposed to
soften the soil. I've never heard of it, but one local firm swore by
it. They advised against simply watering the ground, and said that
this would make the problem worse, I'm not sure why.

Ken Cohen

"...OK, I've checked out the cost of getting someone to rotivate it. It's
only about 150 square yards but I'm getting quotes of between £250 to £450,
which seems excessive....."

I agree.......You could get 2 men with spades to dig it by hand for less.

"....One interesting thing which emerged is that there is something called
"Breakthrough" or "Breakout" which apparently you mix with water and spray
on the ground 24 hours before rotavating ......."

Never heard of it.
Try digging a spade full of soil and look at how dry it is through the spit
depth,
If its really dry then water WELL 2 or 3 days before you plan to work(That
should ensure Rain on the day you are going to rotavate)

Rotavating will give you a hard "Pan at the bottom of the area you work, and
the wetter the soil the worse it gets, caused by the blades rubbing along at
the bottom of their cutting depth.

--
David Hill
Abacus nurseries
www.abacus-nurseries.co.uk

I'm beginning to realise that the whole question of soil preparation
prior to sowing is more complex than I had realised.

I fear that the soil-softening substance referred to by the local
garden clearance "expert" may be BreakFree Oil, which is a specialised
cleaner for guns, believe it or not. I don't know exactly how it
affects the soil, but I think I'll be giving this one a miss.


Ken Cohen

I'm beginning to realise that the whole question of soil preparation
prior to sowing is more complex than I had realised.

I fear that the soil-softening substance referred to by the local
garden clearance "expert" may be BreakFree Oil, which is a specialised
cleaner for guns, believe it or not. I don't know exactly how it
affects the soil, but I think I'll be giving this one a miss.


Ken Cohen

I would also go with getting someone in to do it,
They will know their machine
Have a more powerful machine than you could get
Charge you for the hours worked, not the days of hire for the machine.
You can watch and learn so that if you hire a machine in the future you will
A/ have a good idea of how best to use it
B/ you will be working on ground that is easier.

A few years ago my Howard gem was out of action and I had to hire a machine
from local hire shop.
The job took me almost 3 days with their machine rather than about 6 hours
with my Gem.
Felt like digging the ground with a tea spoon instead of a spade.

--
David Hill
Abacus nurseries
www.abacus-nurseries.co.uk