Beautiful day

When I got up H had already gone out for a walk. I settled for bacon, egg, bread and tea instead. My arms were feeling tight after yesterday's exertions. Breakfast done and pots washed I decided on another brew and read of my current book. Looking out the window over the garden I could see the sky was blue but the Willows at the bottom of the garden were whipping about. The question was....how cold was that wind. After a couple of chapters I sorted myself out and went to the lottie. I got there at 10.30 and was surprised to find I had the place to myself. This was the first time this year where I really had time to do my plot rather than other chores round the site. I took the customary walk around the plot to see what was going on. Damaged netting and weeds mainly however Garlic and onions missed from last year harvest where sprouting. Poppies from last year are growing as is the Rhubarb.

The worst bed for weeds is bed 1 which is the one I had trouble with last as a result of the Willows. Now the Willows are gone the plot feels lighter. I decided that bed A should get my time. This bed is having potatoes this year so needs clearing on weeds. I got the wheel barrow ready and figured that if I was going to drop the weeds in the black compost bins adjacent to the bed I should probably empty it first. The bin came off the contents easily. I skimmed off the top couple of inches of compost that was not properly converted. The remainder I shovelled into the barrow and when full wander to the other end of the bed to tip the contents. The bin yielded three full barrows of prime compost. It was doubly satisfying as the compost was made from the weeds pulled up last year. Circle of life and all that.

I set about the bed with the fork and as usual I could not stop myself dropping the fork in to the soil a full spit when the weeds were just in the top few inches of the soil. The soil was nice and moist so it dug easily. The weeds were the usual suspects; Clover which is a good producer of Nitrogen in the soil, Red Dead Nettle which flowers early so I like to leave it for the Bumble bees but needs just in this case, Creeping Buttercup, Dock but not many these days and then only small ones and masses of Pineapple Weed. The previous day asked me if the sumptuous weed cover on Bed A was a green manure. I had to confess it was not however it could be. The traditional notion of a green manure is a plant that is grown only to be dug into the soil before flowering. In a sense that is what the weeds will end up doing although they will have to go through a compost bin first. I did say that I would leave the ground covered in whatever grew over the winter as a positive action. I think the experiment has been successful in that the soil is full of worms so the soil is in good heart and the weeds will end up back on the plot in twelve months time as compost.

I did my usual thing and worked back and forth across the plot. By the time I had one wheelbarrow worth of weeds I was feeling the exertion. I put the kettle on, tipped the wheelbarrow of weeds into the waiting compost bin, tipped out the bacon scraps, that I had brought from home, to feed the waiting Robin. I took the tomato bins out of Degsy and placed them by the manure pile. The kettle was ready by then so I got he deck chair out, placed it in the sun and plonked myself on it to enjoy my brew. The Robin so came down the feed on the bacon. The little birds do not seem to miss the Willow. They flew up and down the hedge line quite freely. I notice there seems to be a lot of rooks and crows about this year. Back to work. I dug another wheelbarrows worth of weeds and that brought me up to nearly 1pm. The soil was looking really good although the cover of weeds slowed the clearing of the area down a lot. I ran into a lot of roots from the Willows. I had the cut them back when they fouled the fork. The barrow was emptied into the waiting bin again but this time the lids was put on.

I took the fork and barrow up the Bed 3 and dug up the remaining Sprouts and Chard. The soil on that bed is fairly weed free so should be quick to bring up the a seed bed. I chopped the spouts into the big compost bin and put the stalks and the Chard roots in a bag to take home. These items go in the green bin at home. I figured the council can make a better job of composting these items than I can. I went round the bottom end of the plot and pulled down an area of tatty netting, rolled it up and put that in a bag. I still have a fair bit of netting yet to remove but it is no effort to remove it.

The last job was to fill up the blue Tomato bins with manure. The six Tomato bins live in the greenhouse at home. I had noticed that the manure pile seemed have collapsed in the last week of so. I knew why and it is evident as soon as I dug a spadeful out. The shovel had nearly as many worms as manure. The warm weather and the bit of rain must really suit the worms. I packed up Degsy, locked up the barrow and headed home.

At home H was busy in the back garden. Apparently she had just sat down.....with a cup of tea and biscuit. I placed the blue bins under the staging in the greenhouse and emptied the bag of spout stalks into the green bin. H had been busy. The green bin was nearly full. I dug up the renegade Raspberry canes and discouraged a Comfrey plant. You cannot kill comfrey. You have discourage it by digging it up and slashing the leaf off regularly. At least the leaves make a good addition to the compost heap.

H and I had a brew and a sit in the sun with brew. After a while I went for a shower. We then went down to Moira Furance and had a walk along the canal to Donisthorpe and back. U2's tune "Beautiful Day" was on the radio at breakfast and it turned out to be a really beautiful day.