"Mel" wrote in message
...
"Janet Baraclough" replied

I have to choose between 2 allotments,
Do I choose soggy couch grass or a zillion horsetail?

you can build raised beds for growing in, and never have to worry
about
watering.
The horsetail one will be a long nightmare. I would rather wait
for
another vacancy than take a horsetail plot.

Thanks for the reply, Janet. I'm swaying towards the couch grass
plot
because I know that horsetail is even more of a nightmare!

You can work with the wet couch infested one. After 30 years of
stuggling with insufficient soil depth over soggy boulder clay 10s of
feet deep I've finally bitten the bullet and started converting to
deep beds. You can clear the couch easily and quickly with Roundup -
if you are of the organic persuasion then I suggest you make an
exception and get rid of the couch before you start applying organic
methods. We are preparing the deep beds one at a time, dig the bed as
deep as you can, then apply any organic matter you can get. We then
dig any soil from the area designated for paths between beds and put
that on top of the manure, then make the sides of the beds from
whatever you can get that's cheap, durable and not too unsightly. We
are using thick Larch boards because it grows on trees around here.
Another big plus with deep beds is you can change the nature of the
soil to suit particular crops - in our case we're adding a lot of
grit/sand in some beds for carrots etc. Protecting crops with
enviromesh is also easier if you are growing on a bed system.
--
Rod

My real address is rodtheweedygardeneratmyweedyisp
Just remove the weedy bits
and transplant the appropriate symbol at.