3 Effective Ways to Clear your Allotment of Weeds | How to Remove weeds from your plot | Best Ways!

[@FrederickBowdler]

Black plastic overwinter is a great start and makes spring dig a bit easier.

[@TheWtfnonamez]

Brilliant. When I first got my allotment I thought it would be this .... Clearance, weeding, planting, crops, shed, thermos. I quickly realised that it would be better if I did this .... Shed, thermos, camping stove, lots of digging and plastic sheets, and accepting the fact that it might take me a year to grow anything on the land that wasnt in tubs or pots.

[@jacquelinejones5790]

Just got my 1st allotment and found your channel. Thank you and will be binge watching some episodes.

[@TheGreyGardener1990]

Congratulations! Feel free to ask any questions 🙂

[@FrederickBowdler]

Great stuff sound advice.😊

[@RawLondonGardener]

Amazing advice, thanks for sharing your tips!

[@md61211]

I like your video & your delivery. Keep up the good work.

[@noelnoodle7671]

Thanks for posting your allotment videos. They are honestly the best out there. I wondered if you knew of any way of getting rid of mares tail. I’ve tried everything but it just comes back. Cheers, Jackie

[@TheGreyGardener1990]

Nice of you to say! They're prehistoric so are brilliant at surviving...the thing I've heard that "can" work and many would frown upon it...is to use a very strong weedkiller with glyphosate in it. Not great for the environment but the strongest out there I believe. What you have to do though is snap it (not completely) or stamp on it just to break the skin if you like to allow the weedkiller to be absorbed. Other than that, keep pulling and hope to weaken it

[@jameswilmot4537]

Great setup there. I grow peppers in pots and will grow runner beans this year in large pots and on the available plots I have.

[@floridabrit9572]

This is the most helpful video I've seen, and I've seen quite a few. I'm a complete newbie here and I thought the traditional way might be best but now I'm thinking long term no dig. As I'm impatient I'm thinking a combination of both. I'm a new subscriber 💯 as I love your content

[@TheGreyGardener1990]

Glad you're finding my videos useful 🙂

[@leedza]

Ive got an over grown plot. My plan is to rotavate and cover with plastic or cardboard for the winter. May plant a small section with winter crops and cover crop in prep for heavy feeding annuals.

[@TheGreyGardener1990]

@leedza I'd just cover it and not rotavate personally. If it's overgrown, strim it down but rotavating only really chops up the weeds for them to multiply. Only worth doing if you have nice soil

[@djay2688]

I had the same situation with weeds when I took on my plot. Wish I'd covered them now tbh, removed the lot by hand during the Summer of 2020. Was exhausting and they soon came back! Looks like you've got a similar setup to me now. I'm going to try a few no dig beds this year to try and keep weeds down.

[@ryanchisholm1681]

Put cardboard down , then mulch , then topsoil

[@alexandrasara9676]

Very helpful, thank you!

[@lisawaters2585]

Good info!

[@exprezza1648]

Great video, thanks. So assume still need to strim down to low level before letting loose with rotavator? Could then cover with black plastic and do a couple of no dig beds at a time... that way don't need to pay out all at once for all that compost!

[@TheGreyGardener1990]

Yeah strim down regardless. If you're covering with black plastic, no need to rotavate though. But yeah, mixing it up is good for sure

[@jamesmills4097]

I took an allotment in October, the plot is covered in bricks, paving slabs, broken glass, I've started cleaning a 8x8 section by an old chicken coop and if i dig down the soil is full of broken glass and bricks. So much work

[@TheGreyGardener1990]

That sounds tough. Just do little sections at a time and even if you don't clear the whole lot for this summer, I wouldn't worry too much

[@48Nugget]

Great video. Thanks for posting. We have an allotment and have had half of it under plastic for 12 months. We've not looked under there yet but when we do, how should we tackle what's under there (it will be dead couch grass)? Any tips would be most welcome. Thanks

[@TheGreyGardener1990]

Just dig what's left out. Hopefully shouldn't be much after 12 months. Try and get all the roots out so go down as deep as you can

[@whitevoodooman7276]

Good job I would love an allotment I eat tons of veg an spuds

[@TheGreyGardener1990]

I love it but it's hard to keep juggling everything. Grown stuff that doesn't take much care this year

[@andrewross4819]

Hello there my friend. I have no idea how to plant even a carrot. At 58 i am the consequence of a NHS surgery gone wrong thing. (7 months in coma, now 2 bags on my tummy for my waste blah, blah) a mind full of energy albeit the body very challenged and i thought an allotment would be a cracking way to give me more time at life. It has been set aside for me as i am seeing it on Saturday. It is 8 metres X 14 metres and not heavily overgrown. Do you think that someone who is physically quite disabled, (yet mobile) and has never planted anything other than thoughts, could make a go of a plot this size?

[@TheGreyGardener1990]

@andrewross4819 I won't lie it won't be easy. There are ways to make it easier sk you grow veg and not weeds! Anything raised is a lot easier. Potatoes in pots etc. Biggest advice is probably laying a weed fabric and putting holes in it to grow stuff. That way it suppresses weeds but allows water to pass through it. Best of luck 👍

[@andrewross4819]

@@TheGreyGardener1990 Thank you ever so much. I will be giving it a go, (= all i do got) i will take your advice and let you know what happens! My very best wishes to you.

[@TheGreyGardener1990]

@andrewross4819 no problem. Yes definitely give it a go. You'll love it I'm sure! Another tip...when you take over a plot, it can be very daunting. I'd cover part of it with thick black plastic and forget about it. The following year, take it off and cover another bit. 1 it keeps weeds down but more importantly you don't have a huge area to sort. It makes it more manageable

[@andrewross4819]

@@TheGreyGardener1990 Bless ya mate

[@emcarver8983]

Hey hon 😊 I asked you in one of your videos if you wanted a recipe for salve for bites and stings. I can't find which video it was. I don't want to choke up your message thread. Where would you like me to post it? 😬

[@TheGreyGardener1990]

Ah don't worry just put it here 👍 cheers

[@pablo9364]

Does your allotment still look this good. Or has your work conflicted with time needed to maintain it

[@TheGreyGardener1990]

Works conflicted with time but also time of year. It needs a winter tidy but I've just moved house too so time is very limited at the moment.

[@leanev4019]

What is the besy time of year to cover the lot and leave it?

[@TheGreyGardener1990]

Any time is fine and the longer you leave it the better the results will be

[@leanev4019]

@@TheGreyGardener1990 thanks so much! We have a community plot we rent, it's around 35 m2. Last year my husband and I spent weeks clearing it... I think it looks 10x worse this year 😭. It's mainly my fault because I was away for two months mostly the beginning of Spring and I couldn't catch the weeds in time and smother them with cardboard. So definitely want to cover all the planter boxes. We tried using cardboard in the beginning, but it just shrinks and starts to shrivel up leaving gaps for weeds to poke trough. But now I will cover it all. An leave it for a few months.

[@rubiccube8953]

Get a goat . If you want to do it faster get more goats. I’ve used many methods over the years on many plots . The old method was weed killer then burn the results killing off surface weed seeds. You could still do that with ammonium sulphamate expensive not dangerous and gets rid of knotweed ,couch grass , bindweed, comfrey, horsetail. The black plastic method is good because you can do this every off season time. Even in summer you can solarise the weeds. The tumbledown method is good . Strim with blades, then strimmer line ,level ground , continue to trim often . When all debris like wire , stones gone use a lawn mower with collection box. Eventually it will turn to grass . Then you can cut beds out.

[@mikespeers8281]

You’d be very lucky to be allowed to keep a goat unless it’s your own land. As for ammonium sulphamate, I wouldn’t call it “not dangerous”, it’s banned in Europe, can burn eyes and certainly not a very organic solution to the problem.

[@rubiccube8953]

@@mikespeers8281 Ammonium Sulphamate is used on furniture to prevent fires. It wasn’t banned it wasn’t allowed a license to be sold for weed killing until trials were carried out dogs. Which wasn’t financially profitable for a company since they would not be able to patent it. By the way water can hurt you. Also most crops are being sprayed with glyphosate, EU approved. I would rather grow my own using Ammonium Sulphamate to get rid of very difficult weeds .

[@hannacook859]

How big is your allotment?

[@TheGreyGardener1990]

I'm not actually sure. At a guess I'd say about 30m long and maybe 10m wide