Start by Reading the Ground

Before you lift a fork, spend ten minutes just looking at the bed. You want to know what you are dealing with: is it heavy clay that sits wet for weeks, a light sandy soil that drains before the kettle boils, or a decent loam that has simply been neglected? Slug trails, moss and a green film on the surface all tell you drainage is poor. Docks and creeping buttercup tell you the ground has been wet and unworked for a while.

Then do the squeeze test. Take a handful of soil from about a spade's depth, roll it in your palm and squeeze. If it forms a ball that holds its shape and smears like putty, it is too wet to work — walk away and come back in a few days. If it crumbles as you open your hand, you have the green light. Working wet soil is the single most common mistake made on allotments, and it can leave you with concrete-like clods that take a whole season to break down.

Clear Weeds and Old Crops Properly

Start with a fork rather than a spade. You want to loosen the soil and lift roots out whole, not chop them into pieces that each grow into a new plant. Perennial weeds are the ones that matter here:

• Couch grass — follow every white rhizome, however far it runs. A trug or bucket beside you helps.
• Ground elder and bindweed — these need persistence. Lift what you can, then be ready to pull regrowth every fortnight through spring.
• Docks and dandelions — a long taproot means you need to dig deep and get the whole thing, or it will return.

Annual weeds are easy by comparison. A sharp hoe on a dry, breezy morning will kill most of them within hours. Never rotavate a bed full of couch grass — you will simply multiply it and spend the rest of the year regretting it. If a bed is truly overrun, consider covering it with black polythene for six to eight weeks to weaken the growth before you start.

Deal with Compaction Without Digging Yourself Silly

Most allotment beds have a compacted layer about a spade's depth down, often from years of feet and machinery. The answer is a simple single dig: work backwards across the bed, sinking your fork to the full depth of the tines and levering gently rather than turning the soil over. You are opening it up, not flipping it.

Stand on a plank or board as you go, so your weight is spread and you are not undoing your own good work. Once the bed is loose, try to keep your feet off it entirely — this is why raised beds and permanent paths earn their keep on a British plot, where winter rain can leave the ground saturated for months.

Feed the Soil with Well-Rotted Compost

Now the rewarding bit. Spread a layer of well-rotted compost or manure roughly 5cm deep across the surface — about two barrowloads per square metre is a sensible guide. Well-rotted means crumbly and earthy-smelling, with no recognisable straw or bedding left in it. Fresh manure will burn young roots and can harbour weed seeds, so if in doubt, stack it and wait.

Different materials suit different plots. Homemade compost and leafmould are close to neutral and improve any soil. Mushroom compost is alkaline, so use it sparingly if you plan to grow potatoes, which prefer acid conditions. Horse manure is wonderful stuff, but check with the supplier that it has not come from animals grazed on treated pasture, as residues can damage tomatoes and beans for years.

On clay, compost opens up the structure and improves drainage over time. On sand, it holds water and nutrients where they would otherwise wash straight through. Either way, you are feeding the worms, and they will repay you by doing the mixing for you.

Lightly fork the compost into the top few inches, then rake the surface level. Aim for a fine tilth — crumbly, even, with no lumps bigger than a marble — because small seeds need firm, fine contact with the soil to germinate.

Sow Hardy Crops Once the Bed Is Ready

A prepared bed does not need to sit empty. From late February onwards, plenty of hardy crops will cope in the open ground:

• Broad beans — sow direct in a double row, 20cm apart, and they will shrug off a late frost.
• Garlic and onion sets — plant into firm ground, pushing sets in so just the tips show.
• Early peas — a short variety in a sheltered spot will give you pods by early summer.
• Spinach, lettuce and radish — quick, cheerful rows for cut-and-come-again salads.
• Parsnips and early carrots — they want a fine, stone-free tilth and no fresh manure.

Keep a roll of fleece or a couple of cloches to hand for cold snaps. Shuffle across the bed on your heels to firm the soil before sowing, water the drill if the ground is dry, and label everything — spring is a busy time and you will forget which row was which. Get the groundwork right now, and the whole growing season becomes a great deal easier.