The weather has been very benign this past week, even spring like. I had business to take care of in Birmingham on Saturday morning so resolved to go the the lottie in the afternoon. I figured the few extra hours of sun and wind to dry off the soil would do no harm. It got the lottie about 14.30. The sun was heading for the horizon and I knew I had until about 17.00 before it was dusk. I filled the bird feeders and replaced the fat balls. I got the wheelbarrow out and thought it heavy to push even thought it was empty. It only took a second to confirm the tyre was punctured. There is another job to do. I did not have tools to take the wheel off so I had to work without the barrow.
I had only one task on my mind and that was to dig up more spuds. I got the spade and the basket for the spuds from Degsy. As usual got got distracted. This time by some Dock sprouts pushing through the soil that I had dug over in Bed1 back end of last year. I spot weeded them and found they where just sprigs of root that had been left behind. Even through this cold snap the weeds are growing. It is depressing. I went back to main task in hand having restored the tilled Bed1 to it's weed free glory. I stepped into the potato trench where I left off last time. I started carefully digging and immediately cut a few spuds in half. Not a good start. Having gauged where the spuds where I continued easing the soil apart and dropping the spuds in to the basket and making a pile out of the weeds. The basket and weed pile where about neck and neck. Although the spuds I was harvesting were my main crop, Cara, the tubers where the size of my earlies, about Hen's eggs size. There were not many of them either. Cara usually crop well. However all the time these spuds were growing last year it was raining. I was pleased not to find any blight in the crop. I plodded up and down the rows. The main crop rows are set further apart than the rows for the earlies and with the reduced crop there was a lots of empty soil to move. Well...empty except for the Dock, although it was not too bad. The Robins must have been hungry. They usually sit on the grape vines and wait until I leave to get into the freshly turned soil. This time they were in and around my feet whenever I stopped to collect a stray spuds that missed the basket or just for a rest. I have no idea what they see to eat but they nearly always find something almost instantly. The wind was very keen but there was a hedge between me and it and I was bent over in the trench digging so I did not feel it's effects. The Sun, though low and weak, had warmed the soil and despite all the wet weather we have had the soil was not waterlogged even at the bottom of the trenches. I managed a couple of rows before the sun got too low and took the temperature down with it. I raked the spoil out to create a seed bed.
I have only a few rows of spuds to lift. The next visit will clear them then I will be into straight forward digging of weeds. With a bit of luck the weather and time gods will be kind and I should have Bed1 dug over. When the puncture is fixed a should then be able cover the bed with the manure that has been maturing in the big bin. Even through the worst of the snow the top of the muck bin was snow free.
I noticed that some of the Rhubarb crowns are starting to bud. So there is life beyond the winter and weeds!
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