The allotment which my partner and I took on three years ago is clay and I am struggling to persuade my partner (who is a life-long gardener and regards me as a troublesome retiree with too much time on his hands) to consider some of the newer ideas which I keep reading about.
I managed to persuade her to use some permeable membrane to protect what would otherwise have been bare soil over winter and I planted two small areas with green manure. I’m working very hard to create lots of compost and I’m hopeful that my partner is coming round to the idea of protecting the soil as lovingly as she tends the plants.
There is a neglected half-sized plot close to ours and I have applied to take it on so that I can use it purely to create green manure to use on the main plot and in the compost bins. If it works out, I would plan to set up a four- or three-yearly rotation whereby one third of our total square meterage would always be used for growing manure.