Spud bed

I had the happy situation this weekend of having no other calls on my time except the need to do some work on the lottie. I loaded Degsy up with tea bags, milk, water and jam donuts. Then I had a good breakfast of the English variety. With the inner man looked after I set off for the lottie. I really had three main things to do at the lottie.

A. Make a path edge along bed three.
B. Dig up the remaining spuds in bed 2.
C. Prep the pea bed in bed 4

I decided to dig up the remaining spuds. This seemed the most urgent job. As the weather warms up the spuds will start to grow again. I did not dig them up over the winter as had intended, the weather was just so cold either wet or frozen. The lottie was hard hit by late season potato blight. Sadly I had a written off the remaining crop. I set about clearing spud bed in the usual rhythm, a wheelbarrow for weeds and bucket for the spuds. The growing spuds had suppressed the weeds so there were few weeds to deal with. As usual there were a few Dock to deal with as I progressed back and forward across the bed. The over wintered spuds had fallen victim millipedes, worms, mice and the dreaded blight. Leaving the spuds in the ground is not a strange as it may seem. In ye olden days where there was no refrigeration so preservation was very important. Building "clamps" is a very old method of preserving root crops, not only spuds. The essence of the clamp is to bury the root crops in a dry conditions. Spuds are dormant through our winter so in a sense my spuds were clamped albeit in the rows they grew. Clamping does not keep the varmints out, as I found. My back was still a bit weak so I took things easy. The digging was fairly easy if slow. I dug a row and a bit, then had a brew. I had my book with me so I read a dozen pages whilst I drank my brew......very civilised.

Ten minutes after restarting H turned up with goodies [Jam tarts]. H had a look round the plot and having pronounced herself pleased and left me to it. I carried on slowly but surely. The light was dimming and with the cold got more damp and penetrating. I had to crack on a little to get the job done. The soil came up light and friable. As I dug I raked the soil into flat seed bed. When I finished the whole bed was completed and uniform in level. I then got the bag of Lime from Degsy and flung it about the bed. The bed is now ready for the brasiccas.

I was quiet chuffed because, as it turned out, the area I dug over a little over quarter of the bed and now the whole bed is finished. I ended the day without hurting myself, in fact I felt better than when I started. I loaded up Degsy along with the bags of manky spuds and weeds and took them to the tip. On the way back Degsy started playing up. Degsy pegged out about a mile from home. Steve was good enough to tow us home. I parked Degsy up sure that I would be able to fix it in the morning.