Frankly your are lucky ours used to be a municpal tip/domestic waste site back between the wars and was probably turned over to alloments during the Dig for Victory campaign.
Thankfully although the soil is clayey, suffers from waterlogging and there has been 60 years of growing on that site.
At least I have some soil to work with and it has taken 2 years come November to get it into a fit state to cultivate it all.
Why has it taken that long, well firstly I had to finish my degree, then being unemployed and not being able to get any benefits whatsoever because of living with a partner at the time who was additionally a student. No money….that has changed we are currently living apart and I have access to benefits whilst looking for a job.
It takes not just time but money in the first instance to get an allotment or growing space fit for purpose.
Dread to think what some of us are growing our vegetables on it is probably a health safety logistical nightmare in terms of contamination. But we have to be thankful for small mercies it took 2 or 3 years to get my allotment. There are 25 sites with 659 plots and a waiting list of 359.
My advice add some muck then some more muck and then more muck and you will get there. You need to develop some humus through addition of organic matter, I found just covering it with manure helped a great deal, any grass that got through pulls up real easy. Another layer of muck killed of the rest, prior to this I used a systemic herbicide (not organic I know but given history of site does it matter).
This initially killed of the dock and severly weakend any that survived, any seedlings that now come through are small and pull up easily. Answer keep on top of weeding whilst moving on to the next plot and then go back add some more manure/mulch and weed again.
It’s never ending with the weeding but over time it should disappear. I have a standard size allotment plot with 14 x 4′ x 33′ plots with one foot paths between the wheel barrow fits through as well, contrary to what I have been told (the paths are lower than the growing plots they are in effect areas that collect water and keep the raised beds (plots) moist.
Its been a lot of hard work, crops I put in late last summer are now ready for harvesting or not far off. Crops put in this year are being harvested, the salad leaves are ready, as are the spring onions. I pick the salad leaves as I need them, peas, beans, potatoes, courgettes, fruit bushes are all growing and will soon be ready for harvest.
Crops for later in the year i.e. cabbages, swede, celeriac, celery are all about ready to go in. Then it will be my salad crops i.e. endive, landcress for winter cropping, along with crops of onions, cabbages for spring the following year.
Polytunnel still not in so no tomatoes or greenhouse crops this year…c’est la vie.
What is important here the journey or how you get there. I do not dig my plots either, nor do if I can help it use chemicals but in that journey I might have or may have resorted to them, to hasten my journey. Currently looking into Rockdust, I was aware of it but it got buried along the way.
Concept, our soils lack some key/essential minerals selenium being one, the calcium/magnesium balance is more important. Rockdust is volcanic rock a by-product of quarrying, you add it to your soil or compost bin like lime. It acts as an acclerator, adds key minerals and increases your crop yield. Think of it in terms of growing on the side of Vesuvius or Etna. How green is it, well you need less water, transportation is an issue but you do not need so many or to use any additional fertilisers. The Jury is out for me but will give it a try.
Onwards and upwards, once more into the breach….the weather is clearing here in the North West of England, we have been having that lovely soft Irish rain and goodness we needed it.