Getting the keys to a new allotment is one of gardening's great pleasures, and also one of the most daunting. You stand at the gate looking at a patch of couch grass, a few tired raised beds and the previous tenant's abandoned bean canes, and wonder where on earth to start. The temptation is to hire a rotavator and blitz the lot in a weekend. Please don't. A methodical start — clearing, testing, then feeding the soil — will save you a season of frustration and give you a plot that improves every year rather than fighting you.

Start with a walk-round, not a spade

Before you dig anything, spend an hour simply looking. Note which way the plot faces, where the low, boggy corners sit after rain, and which structures you plan to keep. Sheds, water butts and fruit bushes are often worth saving; rotting timber and broken glass are not. Check the tenancy agreement before you remove anything permanent.

Then make a rough sketch. Mark the sunny, sheltered side — that is where your tomatoes, courgettes and runner beans will go. Mark the shady end, which is fine for rhubarb, mint and a leaf-mould bin. Splitting the plot into four rough quarters now will make crop rotation far easier later.

The single most useful question to ask your neighbours is what the plot grew last year. If brassicas were in the ground, expect clubroot. If potatoes were there, watch for eelworm. Local knowledge beats any book.

Clear weeds properly, and in the right order

Weed clearance is where new plot holders lose heart, usually because they attack the whole plot at once. Work in strips instead. Clear a manageable patch, plant it, then move on. A half-planted plot in June beats a bare, dug-over plot you have given up on.

• Perennial weeds first. Couch grass, bindweed, ground elder, docks and horsetail spread by root. Every fragment left in the soil becomes a new plant. Fork them out by hand, following each root, and bag the debris for the council rather than adding it to your compost heap.
• Annual weeds second. Chickweed, fat hen and groundsel die easily. Hoe them off on a dry day, or smother them under cardboard weighted with compost.
• Smother rather than dig. Overlapping sheets of plain cardboard, topped with 10–15cm of compost or well-rotted manure, kill most weeds in a season and feed the soil at the same time. This is the kindest option for a plot that has not been worked for years.

Only dig or rotavate when the soil is dry enough. Squeeze a handful: if it forms a sticky ball that holds its shape, stay off it. Working wet clay destroys the structure and you will be repairing the damage for years.

Test your soil before you add anything

An inexpensive pH testing kit tells you more about your plot than a whole afternoon of guessing. Most vegetables want a pH between 6.0 and 7.0.

• Acidic soil (below 6.0) suits potatoes and blueberries but limps for brassicas. Apply garden lime in autumn or winter, following the packet rate.
• Alkaline soil (above 7.5) grows excellent brassicas and beans, but potatoes will scab. Add plenty of compost and leaf mould rather than lime.
• Neutral is ideal, and simply needs feeding and organic matter.

While you are at it, dig a spade-sized hole and look at the profile. Is there a compacted pan 20cm down? Fork it through. Is the topsoil thin over chalk or gravel? Build raised beds and fill them. Does the soil hold water like putty, or drain instantly like sand? Both need the same answer: organic matter, and plenty of it.

Feed the soil, and the soil will feed you

New plots are almost always hungry. Spread 5–8cm of well-rotted manure or garden compost over the surface and let the worms take it down, rather than digging it in deeply. If you are using fresh manure, spread it in autumn and plant into it the following spring — fresh manure burns roots and encourages weeds.

Where manure is hard to come by, leaf mould, spent mushroom compost and homemade compost all do the job. A dusting of blood, fish and bone at planting time covers most vegetables' needs. Do not add lime and manure at the same time; the reaction wastes the nitrogen you have just paid for.

Lay out beds and paths before spring sowing

Keep beds no wider than 1.2m so you can reach the middle from either side without treading on the soil. Paths of bark chip, woodchip or paving slabs make the plot a pleasure to work in wet weather and stop compaction. A water butt near the shed, a compost bin in three bays, and a sturdy seat will all earn their keep in the first year.

Then sow something. Broad beans, onion sets, garlic, early peas and hardy salad leaves can all go in while the rest of the plot is still being cleared. Nothing lifts the spirits like a row of green shoots on a plot you were told was hopeless.

Take it steadily, keep a notebook, and remember that an allotment is a long project, not a weekend one. The plot that looks immaculate in its first April is often the one abandoned by August. The plot that gets a little better every month is the one still producing marrow-sized courgettes in ten years' time.