First, clear away any debris, broken glass, bricks, bicycle frames, scrap plastic etc.
Survey the covering vegetation. Mark out any thing of value-fruit bushes, raspberry canes just emerging. Ask your neighbour if there might be asparagus.
Try and establish whether you have just
a)annual weeds and grasses, or
b)whether its really neglected, with nettles/docks/small trees,couch grass, ground elder, bindweed, marestail.(potatoes,carrots,
Initially find (four) areas which could be described as a)
these could be hoed or mown, covered in cardboard then compost and planted. This would be a start for this season. Four areas ideally. 1 each for (according to your requirements)
leaves(salads, spinach,chard etc)
roots (potatoes,carrots, onions,turnips,radish etc
legumes(beans,peas, perhaps sweet corn
fruit (courgettes, melons,tomatoes, cucumbers etc
Once these are established ,but not necessarily yet planted because of frost , you can look to gradually reclaim areas identified as ” b).”
If you have time , you could mow these early to restrict them seeding, and keep them in check.
Cover with cardboard and compost as before. You may not get 100% control in year 1,but by excluding light, green plants cannot thrive, and will, eventually, die.Large , woody roots need to be removed(BY DIGGING-!!)
Good Luck, please post progress reports and photos.
Cleansweep
This will enable you to increase the size of the productive patches progressively, and create the basis of a rotation
