How to prepare allotment beds for planting

Before anything else, get the weeds out. Pull up everything that is growing and get the roots if you can. Annual weeds go on the compost. Perennial weeds — dock, couch grass, bindweed — need more care; even a small fragment of root will come back. This is the part nobody photographs, but it matters most.

I use a fork rather than a spade — it loosens the soil without inverting it and bringing the subsoil up. Work from one end, push the fork in to its full depth, lever forward. If you have compost or manure, work it in as you go. The soil should end up dark and crumbly. If it is still coming up in heavy wet clods, wait a few days — working wet soil does more harm than good.

For anything that is going to be direct sown — carrots, beetroot, radishes, salad — the surface needs to be fine. Rake back and forth until the clods are gone. To make a drill, press the corner of the rake or a bamboo cane into the surface in a straight line. Shallow for small seeds, deeper for peas and beans.

An uncovered bed in spring fills with weeds fast. If a bed is prepared but not going in for a few weeks, cover it — weed membrane, cardboard, anything that keeps the light off. I weight the edges down with bricks. When the time comes, a cross-cut in the membrane and you plant straight through it. It then keeps the weeds down for the whole season.

I use heavy-duty woven membrane held down at the edges with bricks. It also warms the soil slightly and holds moisture in — both useful in a UK spring that can turn cold without much warning.