Monday 13th March
I got down to the plot after 3pm this afternoon so set about getting on with the work, after putting out the notices saying the rescheduled Working Party is on next Sunday.
I started by raking clear a strip in the horse litter mulch next to the broad beans ready for planting the next row which is currently growing on in my greenhouse.
Then I began digging one of the paths next to the summer raspberries only the first spit showed that raspberry roots had spread through to nextdoor. As he was there I asked if I could dig over the strip his side (he has been ill and would find it difficult). I finished up digging more than I thought and found lots of raspberry roots and also lots of bindweed roots. Once I had cleared his side I did the same on mine, well, as best as I could. (It's almost impossible to remove all the roots. Only time will tell how well I have done it!)
There were tons of raspberry roots that had spread out from the parent plants. As I have said before, they had better crop well this year or I will replace them. Having dug over half the pathway and collected a while bucketful of roots and shoots, I decided I needed a change so I moved over to digging out my bean trench.
The strips either side of the bean patch were covered in weeds so I forked out the dandelions and nettles and then loosened the annual weeds and raked them to one side. Digging the trench out, I found the soil was dark and crumbly. The work of the last four years obviously has had an effect. With a clear deep trench I dropped the weeds in and followed them with the top layer of uncomposted material from the full compost bin. By the time I had returned the soil back on top there was a huge ridge even though I had trodden down the compost material. I hope it settles as I don't want my beans growing in a raised bed as keeping them watered will be a problem.
I got down to the plot after 3pm this afternoon so set about getting on with the work, after putting out the notices saying the rescheduled Working Party is on next Sunday.
I started by raking clear a strip in the horse litter mulch next to the broad beans ready for planting the next row which is currently growing on in my greenhouse.
Then I began digging one of the paths next to the summer raspberries only the first spit showed that raspberry roots had spread through to nextdoor. As he was there I asked if I could dig over the strip his side (he has been ill and would find it difficult). I finished up digging more than I thought and found lots of raspberry roots and also lots of bindweed roots. Once I had cleared his side I did the same on mine, well, as best as I could. (It's almost impossible to remove all the roots. Only time will tell how well I have done it!)
There were tons of raspberry roots that had spread out from the parent plants. As I have said before, they had better crop well this year or I will replace them. Having dug over half the pathway and collected a while bucketful of roots and shoots, I decided I needed a change so I moved over to digging out my bean trench.
The strips either side of the bean patch were covered in weeds so I forked out the dandelions and nettles and then loosened the annual weeds and raked them to one side. Digging the trench out, I found the soil was dark and crumbly. The work of the last four years obviously has had an effect. With a clear deep trench I dropped the weeds in and followed them with the top layer of uncomposted material from the full compost bin. By the time I had returned the soil back on top there was a huge ridge even though I had trodden down the compost material. I hope it settles as I don't want my beans growing in a raised bed as keeping them watered will be a problem.
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