Motoring through the Weeding

Well it has been a couple of tough weeks. The weather has been very wet but there has been plenty of wind, oh yes very windy. I pitched up at the lottie this morning. The clouds were high in the sky but grey. Not hint of rain but plenty of wind. I got myself ready and and got my gear to hand. I got a wheelbarrow full of manure and spread it out along the the trench left form the last efforts on clearing the potato bed, Bed1. I thought the soil would be wet and sticky but it was just the right amount of wet. The rain had penetrated right through the soil. That made the soil very easy to dig and break the weeds out. I set myself the task of weeding and preparing Bed1 for the main crop spuds. The seed potatoes are was past due in chitting. I was able to push the fork more than a spit into the soil. I ended up shifting a lot of soil but the bed did get turned over more than a foot deep. At each pass I generated a barrow load of weeds. Last weekend I had run over the plot with the scythe just the knock back the weeds from flowering or seeding. Scything is very therapeutic and sharpening it even more so but it is no surprise folks figured other ways the cut tall plants. It is back braking work. The point is that the barrow did not fill up so quickly. Each barrow load of weeds went in the big compo bin then I went to the poo bin, which is just next door and filled the barrow with well rotted manure which then went onto the face of the trench. All very efficient.

It was quite soothing with my music playing through my headphones and motoring through the digging. A couple hours saw me finish another third of the bed. I intend to plant five rows of spuds tomorrow. It should not take long to dig the remain part of the bed as a cleared then a little while ago.

I had a chat with Jonny in between his strimming. He did me a good turn by strimming round the front of the plot. That looks a bit tidier too. I had a brew. whilst idling I went and had a look at the bees. They are doing very nicely. They are coming and going but most importantly they a building up slowly. The top end of the plot looks quite nice because the hedge is in full leaf . The hive is just there and surrounded by bright orange Californian Poppies. I don't think it will be long before the self seeded Michaelmas Daisies will be out. I got on my hands and knees a weeded the middle path and the path between beds 1 and 2. It has made a big difference and another barrow load of weeds.


I had a little time on my hands so decided to prepare Bed4 for planting. That required me to dig out the volunteer potatoes that had started growing from the spuds missed in last years harvest. Bed4 is for Brassicas so needs firming up. That is done by treading the soil down. Al ones does is to stand we your heels together and shuffle forward pressing down on your heels. It really compacts the soil. I following a circular path until the all bed had been tread done. I got the rake out and levelled the soil then in tread the soil again but this time starting at one end treading across the bed, back and forth. It tread the soil in a different direction. Then I raked it again. The bed is now nice and flat and firm. The weed seedlings are also stomped and disrupted. Just before packing up I levelled off the compo bin a threw in a half barrow load of manure. Hopefully also the worms in the manure will start to get busy on the weeds. The bin is pretty full.

I am used to the Robins hanging around to grab the worms and pupae I have dug up but today I had a new set of mouths or should that be beaks waiting their turn on the fence.  Bullfinches. Their feathers are highly coloured and they are quite a big finch so made quite a sight. The Robins are looking scruffy but they must have almost finished rearing their brood.