A spot of rain

Since the last time I went to the lottie there has been one light shower. Not even a shower really. It was enough to stimulate the weeds. In the three days since my last visit the weeds in bed 3 has gone from a green fuzz to a foot high. The spuds still planting but the weedy bed3 needs dealing with. I took the same approach as with bed1. I got down on my knees, it saves my back, and used the green spade as a hoe. I grabbed handfuls of the hoed weeds and threw them into the nearby wheelbarrow. Where I came across tap rooted weeds I stood up and dug them out. It took most of the day to clear the bed but it completely clean. The black compost bins are filing up but are not yet full.

I had all of today to play with. I was at the lottie for 8.30. I started on bed4 which is the spud bed for this year. Back on my knees to clear the weeds. I did a wheelbarrows worth of weeds and consigned then to the compo bins. The clear area let me plant three rows of spuds. Then another barrow load of weeds. More trenches, more spuds. By 12.30 I had eight rows of spuds in, having shifted four wheelbarrows of weeds and four wheelbarrows of manure. I had a break for dinner. I went home made a sandwich and a brew as I watching the MotoGP from Estoril. Pedrosa won but he was not going to plant the remaining spuds for me.

Back at the lottie I finished off the two remaining rows of spuds. With weather being so dry I having give each trench a watering cans worth of water, 10 litres or 2 gallons in old money. The water went in after the manure and the spuds were set. In less than two days I have transformed half the plot. It was windy but sunny and I still loads of time left. I looked at the big pile of the stone that had been deliver to the end of my plot.

It was intended be my path long the side of bed2, the dividing path between beds 3 & 4 and as much of the the side paths alongside beds 3 & 4. The pile had not compacted since it had only been there a week so it dug easily. I just loaded the wheelbarrow and pushed it along the paths to the point by bed2 where the new path filler stopped. This where I got to the last time. I just tipped the barrow loads one at a time. With each loads I just kicked it about to rough level then did the gardener shuffle to compact it. When I finished the twenty odd loads to complete the bed2 path I gave it a light raking a shuffled the surface again. Next I filled the path between beds 3 & 4. This was a deep path so took some filling. After giving the this path the same treatment as the other I moved onto the path alongside bed3. More of the same, shovelling and wheelbarrowing. The big pile disappeared over a couple of hours. I finished just after 7pm.

In all this digging, wheelbarrowing, planting and shovelling my mind was clear. Uncluttered by work issues. At the end of this and last weekends work the plot has come together. Allotmenting is just a question of making an effort.