Starting a veg garden

Moggaman

Hi there.i am starting a veg garden about 10m by 10m this year for potatoes etc. I covered the area with heavy plastic 6 months ago and took a peek under it this week. It is totally brown and all pre existing weeds have broken down into it. My questions are
Should I
1/ take plastic up..rotavate and cover again for a month thereby ensuring everything is dead.then plant
2/take up plastic , add compost and plant in feb...

Also, will I have issues with weeds during the growing season. I won't use any chemicals so I guess it's hand pull them as they appear?...
Thanks..

redser7

You should dig out weed roots as some are very persistent and will grow again. Only dig if the ground isn't too wet. If you have muck sticking to your boots it's too wet. You can ruin the soil structure if you work it when it's too wet.
I assume the soil will need improving so a layer of manure would be good. But you can limit yourself to where you are growing if that makes more sense. ie, just put some manure/compost in the potato trenches etc. February will be too early for planting most things. You want to wait till the temperatures rise and the soil temperature rises. Keeping the ground covered in black plastic will help it warm up quicker.
You will always have problems with weeds. There are million of weed seeds in your soil and more wil always blow in. Working the soil will turn these up. So mantainence is the order of days. Hoe regularly. You could also consider growing some veg through weed membrane which will help solve that problem.
Some people dont favour rotavating as it can chop weeds and make the problem worse. So do some reading up on it and make up your own mind. Certainly if it is new ground it needs working, whether by rotavating or single digging.
You will get the best benefit by feeding the soil, not the plants. ie. manure and compost rather than chemicals. Another hot topic but organic growing has a lot stronger scientific backing these days.
Look into Osmo products. They are great organic feed and soil improvers and come in large sacks.
Best of luck!

redser7

btw - there are more than one way to skin a cat so you're likely to get conflicting advice on methods based on what people do themselves. Just get stuck in

redser7

It will never keep those weeds down though