The message
from Chris Norton contains these words:

On Sun, 22 Jun 2003 11:05:47 GMT, (Graham White)
wrote:

Help!!

I have an allotment and over the years I have tried to be as organic
as possible. However, for various reasons, I haven't been able to get
down to the allotment at all so far this year which means it's a
complete mess so I'm going to have to start again from scratch.

I intend to hire a petrol strimmer and clear down to the soil level,
put down weedkiller and then hire a rotavator to dig it over and start
again next year.

So my question is, as I've never used weedkiller before, what
weedkiller should I use? What is effective but fairly non-toxic to
wildlife etc.


Roundup (aka glyosphate) in a knapsack sprayer will do the job nicely.
However, as already mentioned your still going to be digging roots for
a while to come.

In the timespan mentioned, the ground will soon be completely covered
in seeded weeds again. You would do better to cover the whole lot with
whatever you can cadge for free, to eliminate light. This will kill the
existing weeds, prevent any more germinating, and keep the ground clean
until next season..so you shouldn't need to rotovate.

Try, old tarpaulins, old carpets, flattened cartons,or as a last
resort, bought black plastic sheeting. Put some old planks or bricks
round the edges to stop it blowing loose.

Janet.