"dave n cally" wrote in message

thanx for the reply [not cheared me up though ] the ground is rock hard
and undigable so would the second part of my plan be a good idea
spreading manure over the site leaving it covered with a plastic sheet
untill i can get it rotivated i already have the sheet enough to cover
the whole plot .i got that f.o.c. from my brother inlaw i thought it
may make it easier to tackle the weeds as it would be easier to dig?
another idea i have is to make raised beds and move the weed free soil
into these but put cardboard under the weeded soil to prevent any
coming back up ? would 6 inches be high enough ? i could add extra
[6inches] on top in a year or twos time

No soil is so bad that it can't be improved. I started my vegetable bed by
digging a plot about 6 ft long and about 3 ft wide - for several years it
was known as "the Tomb of the Unknown Gardener". I dug this in what was
rough native pasture grass in "soil" that had first ever in history been
cleared of trees in the late 1960s. No soil improvement had ever been done
on it and I have to say that it was bloody ghastly - it was pale yellow in
colour, it was like concrete and I never saw a worm for several years. I
worked for days with a pick doing half inch indentations and then putting a
sprinkler on and going back the next day to do a few more half inch pick
indentations etc. My Brother in law eventually took pity on me and helped
me get it down about 4 inches into the ground. My soil is now full of worms
and getting to be a good dark chocolate colour but still has further to go.
I use mountains of manure of any sort I can get my hands on.

My advice would be to make sure the soil is very moist and if it isn't moist
then water it or do as I did with my pick before watering, put on as much
poop as you can get your hands on, cover it with the plastic and leave it as
long as you can. If you can get to the allotment and pull back the plastic
and rake back the poop, dig by hand with a fork a small section at a time
and then rake back the poop when you are done and put the plastic back and
keep doing that till you've done the whole area. I recomend this because as
you a re in the UK, you are in winter and now is a good time to let the poop
sit and let the worms get to it. Learn about worms, they are your friends
in the garden as is all soil biota. The soil biota all do a huge amount of
work for you and you want to encourage them by disturbing them as little as
possible and machines do disturb them. Do everything you can to encourage
the build up of that soil life. If your plot has had blackbverries on it,
then as irritating as they are to get rid of, they do improve the soil.
also if it has been an allotment in the past, it should have had some soil
imporvement done on it so you shouldn'be be too discouraged.

I know this cite won't fit the situation you find yourself in, but this site
has been inspirational to me in the past and may help you realise that it
CAN be done with a bit of patience and by working with nature, not against
it. Start small, don't bite off more than you can chew and just keep at it,
bit by bit. The more you learn the more you'll realise what a satisfying
(if occasionally infuriating) hobby you have taken on.
http://www.rosneath.com.au/ipc6/ch02/withers/index.html