Plot Rejeuvenation

Plot  Rejuvenation and Improvement    Down Road   

New Plot to you?   You may have inherited a plot that had previously been neglected. What advice can we give as to what you should do?

Cut back all woody and non-compostable plants and debris and establish a pile up in the middle of your plot, salvaging any plants or materials that you want to keep. Dig out all the woody roots too. Remove all from site. If you must, have a bonfire, BUT follow all of the precautions. Do not cause a nuisance or annoyance to any of our neighbours. No imported household, commercial or motoring items are to be burned. Choose suitable weather and wind conditions. Allow material to dry to avoid smoke over neighbouring washing, property or roads - Consider others enjoying their gardens particularly at weekends and holidays. Don’t leave a fire unattended and make sure it’s always under control. The bonfire ash is beneficial to your plot.

Establish a compost heap preferably as a 4 foot cube with sides. Close covering the sides with thick black polythene will accelerate the composting. Old pallets work well to make compost sides structure.  With a spade. or a hack, cut off a thin upper layer of grass, weeds, etc and add to your compost heap green side down.  Any undesirable, or perennial weeds, debris, etc.  should be “green bagged” and removed from site.  It is quite likely that you will not be able to get your plot under control all in one go. Concentrate on strips of land at a time so that you can plant out young plants for some reward for your efforts.

Direct sowing in our soil can have very variable results so bringing on plants for transplanting is often more successful.  Areas not under cultivation could be covered with a light excluding medium like corrugated cardboard, black plastic, suitably weighted down, or even old carpet, but please remove these and rubbish from site when their job is done. This technique also works well for mounds of turfs, soil with weed etc.

As a last option alternative you could spray the top green vegetation with GLYPHOSATE, or a proprietary version of it.  Take special care about overspray and spray drift. Choose a no wind day and keep the spray head low.  This chemical is absorbed by the green top vegetation and works down into the roots. Glyphosate neutralises itself on contact with the soil and so does not poison the soil. However it does have to be applied in the growing season 10C+ and it will take 5-6 weeks to become fully effective with the roots of the undesirable vegetation.

Add nutrition and structure to your soil.  Your soil will probably need feeding so make arrangements to obtain manure, compost, seaweed, etc. for your plot. It is probably true to say that you cannot have too much humus in our soil.  (See advice notes on manure).

Digging

We would recommend that you “rough” dig all over your plot. Double digging is not necessary, or desirable, as the soil depth is too shallow over the sandstone bedrock and you don’t want to lift clay subsoil up to the surface. Before you start to dig make sure that you have access to a good spade.  A well worn old carbon steel spade is good, but if you have to buy one, choose a stainless steel version as our clay soil will be less likely to stick to it.  It may pay you to sharpen the edge first.    The most effective time to dig is going into, or during, the winter months as the drainage for excess rain will be improved and the weather, particularly frosts, will do the work of improving the soil condition for you.   Most Down Road plots slope. The effect of the weather is to move the soil from the top of your plot to the bottom. To counteract this, start digging at the top and turn over the soil by moving it uphill slightly.   Don’t try digging it all in one session. Little and often, like an hour or two at a time, is the order of the day to avoid back trouble. Also keep your back covered up and warm. Try to devise a digging technique that involves you with minimal effort and strain. 

Here is a suggestion – Clear vegetation off a one to two metre wide strip right across your plot. Starting digging at the top end – definitely don’t start at the bottom - pushing the spade into the soil with your boot, then press down on the spade handle to lever up the sod, as you do this twist the spade through 90 degrees, with the minimum of lifting, so that the sod just slides off your spade. You may have inherited mounds and hollows on your plot so fill the hollows with the mounds during your digging exercise.

If you still have growing winter crops strip dig between them.

Dig or NO dig?

The most successful plots that we have all follow the DIG method.  Several tenants have tried the NO DIG method.   Primarily we feel because it is perceived as requiring less physical work.  The history on our site is that no one has been fully successful with it when compared to the traditional DIG method. The NO DIG method requires copious amounts of compost and manure to be added to the plot each year. By copious we mean tractor trailer loads to cover the plot to several inches deep. So much for less physical work and most of us cannot obtain or afford this amount of compost material.  However the Association does not dictate how you cultivate only that you do it successfully.

Defining edges and pathways

Using a line to re-establish the straight edges of your plot, making sure to keep the paths, all around, at least two feet wide. Make the cuts with a sharp spade at a sloping angle into your ground such that the edges of the grass paths have some support. At the same time as you are doing your edges check on the evenness of your paths. Remove mounds and fill in hollows. Keep paths free of all debris. If you are lucky, you may get some paths mown for you, BUT it is still your responsibility to keep your paths clear and safe for all to walk on and the grass must be kept short.   If there are intermediate paths within your plot we would suggest that you consider removing these as they are likely to be a reservoir for couch grass and other weeds and they do need constant maintenance with mowing and keeping the edges under control. They also restrict your options for rotational sowing.

Down Road is a clay based soil and as the moisture content changes from wet to dry the soil will change from sticking to your boots and spade to being so hard that it is difficult to get a spade into it. If you have rough dug over your plot you will need to check when the soil is in the right condition to be broken down into a finer tilth for sowing and planting. This means checking the soil condition every few days and not weeks at a time.

Good luck and may all your efforts be truly rewarded.

JBS Aug 2025