Starting work at the new allotment

We got the key to our new allotment during the hottest, driest part of an abnormally hot, dry summer.  It was not ideal working conditions--and no good for planting either.  We threw out a pile of broken glass (obviously from an old greenhouse) and borrowed a trimmer from a neighbor to mow down the weeds, but that was the extent of it for the first few weeks.

The husband and I collected a couple old pallets and put together a chicken tractor, and set some of our hens to work (strictly daytime only, as we feared foxes overnight).  They did a little weeding, scratching and manuring but we'd need them there longer term to do any real good;  with the tractor not fox-proof, it called for a little more manual labor on our part.

When the weather finally broke and we got a couple of cooler days with rain, the husband, son and I set out, a few chickens in tow, to do some digging.  Though our plot has been cultivated in the past, it had been abandoned for more than a year, and was covered in grass, with quite a few thistles, nettles, dock and other weeds.  After locating the remains of an old raised bed near the front of the plot, we started.

After digging that first bed, we moved the chicken tractor on top of it, to let our birds do some work too.  We'd noticed while digging there weren't any worms--too dry?  Maybe not enough organic matter in the soil, too.  That will be our first priority: to improve the soil as much as possible.  We left the weeds and grasses while digging, to let them break down in place, and set up a pallet compost bin too.  We put 4-6 hens on that bed every day for about a week, and they scratched and pecked seeds and (most importantly) added manure.

The husband had the idea to sheet mulch near the back of the plot, to kill off weeds and prepare the soil for planting later (hopefully next spring).  He took some sheets of cardboard and old paper feed sacks and just laid them on top of the mowed down weeds, weighed them down with some piping and scraps of pallets, and then covered them with the tops of the weeds and grass.  As we won't be able to plant out the entire plot this year--even if we did manage to dig it all over--sheet mulching will do the work for us and hopefully be ready for planting in six or eight months.

But we do want to be able to plant a few things this year, so we have dug the first two beds and once planted will continue to hoe them to suppress weeds. Until then, we'll keep the chickens working in their tractor.

Bonus to taking on an allotment:  free food from fellow allotmenters!  Already scored some beautiful cucumbers and zuccini ♥♥♥