"dave n cally" wrote in message
...

hi ive just got an allotment for me and my son who is 9yrs old ive no
idea on gardening or growing stuff . the allotment hasnt been used for
a couple of years and was covered in brambles and weeds ive removed all
of them to ground level and they are now comming back up .iam thinking
of using round up on them now and leaving for a week or so then
spreading some manure over the site then covering it over with plastic
sheeting . i can then get somebody to plough then rotivate it for a
small charge is this a good idea as i want to get it looking workable
a.s.a.p. so my son dosent loose interest [he has a.d.h.d.] i think it
could be great for him giving him a hobby and somwhere to burn off
steam PLSE HELP!!!!!!!

one thing to consider clearing an overgrown garden is how much space are you
going to use in your first year. You can slash everything down but if you
don't use it then the regrowth will simply come back. If you plan to leave
part of the area fallow and grow on the rest, why use round up to kill the
residual rubbish? Simply keep it covered for a season or 2 will deal to most
weeds without the need of any weedkiller. Slash away the weeds and on the
area you do not want to use chuck a good layer of poop across it and then
cover with something that will block light. Black plastic will be ok but
better still some old wool carpet or (better still) hessian type carpet
underlay. That will be heavier than plastic and will itself degrade
improving your soil. Don't bother with synthetics. You could also use well
weighed down large cardboard boxes. The weeds will die through lack of light
and when you want to get the rest of the land into production chances are
you will find a nice growing medium underneath the mulch. I have done this
and didn't need to use chemicals. The lack of light cleared the weeds.

rob