Sunday dawn sunny and clear. H was still in Manchester. She text me at 7am to tell she had finished the walk and was scoffing bacon butties. I am very proud of her achievement. I went the lottie after a bacon and egg breakfast with lashings of tea. There were four folks there. Not much chat as everyone had stuff to do before the day got too hot. I hoed off most of bed1 and raked it to a level seed bed. I thought I would do some spot weeding on Bed2. Pulled back the black plastic to find a forest of Thistle, the creeping sort. I dug down the side the outer edge of Thistle bank. I had to dig down nearly two feet to get to the horizontal rhizome by which the thistle "creeps". Having found the level I dug a trench along the edge of the area then worked through the thistles taking out the rhizome as I went. it took a good hour the clear the area. Having turned over nearly a ton of soil I was puffed out. A bit more work to fill in the excavations and rake flat the area back to a seed bed.
Every year I grow something new. This year I have decided to grow Spelt Wheat. I hoed and raked the top end of Bed2, made lots of drills and sowed the grain reminding myself of the country rhyme:
One for the mouse,
One for the crow,
One to rot,
and one to grow.
I raked the seed in and gave it a good watering. After that I went to the bottom end of Bed4 and dug up the last of the Leeks and spot weeded the dock. I left the Red Dead nettle growing on for the Bumble bees. This, the last area to prepare, will be dug over at a later date. I had a dozen or so Garlic growing in pots. I planted them out in a line to divide the bed, onions from root crops.
Everything got a watering then the last job of all was to harvest the first picking from the forced Rhubarb. We had it for tea, stewed with a little sugar and candied Ginger.
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