On to stage 2 now!
I cannot yet burn the bramble heaps as the allotment rules state no bonfires before 4pm, by which time it is nearly dark at present so that will have to wait for 2 or 3 weeks. In view of this I intend to amalgamate the 3 large heaps into one enormous heap so that I can continue with the root clearing on the rest of the ground.
I tested the theory today using the 3-prong draw fork to slam under each root ball and push the long handle forward to lever them out. It works very well but will not be a quick job as they are numerous. Nevertheless I managed to clear an area of soil around a couple of square metres in around 10 minutes. I will not try to remove all the smaller fibrous roots at this stage, I see this as an ongoing task which will probably need to be repeated several times over.
My initial aim is to establish a starting bed where some planting can begin to provide encouragement and then extend this as I go, progressively cleaning the soil of roots.
I have picked out as much of the plastic rubbish on the site as I can from between the brambles to form a separate heap which will be going to the tip. I have also leveled off the large overgrown hummocks of soil and grass which someone had dumped alongside the path so the whole site is beginning to look as if someone owns it now.
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