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 )