More clay

I removed last year’s manure (which was tainted with horse-worming chemicals) from the top of this raised bed yesterday and today. Then I dug deep to turn over the soil beneath. In so doing I discovered an area of clay I had no idea was there. It is visible as a lighter-coloured band of soil across the middle of the bed. I shall leave it all as it is for a few days so that the frosts forecast mid-week can start the job of breaking up the clods and save me a bit of labour.

The sides of the raised bed are in need of attention. Some of the stakes I banged into the ground when I constructed it five years ago have rotted, and others have developed quite a lean. So I’ll replace most of them and make it straight again and sturdier, in the hope I don’t have repeat the task in another five years.

Once the clay is broken up and the sides fixed, I’ll add a dozen or so barrow loads of compost and dig it in.

Obviously completing the job at the far end of the bed, where the leeks are growing, will be left until spring.

It’s been a productive day. And hauling barrows of compost around has been a great way to keep warm. It has been a cloudy one and we only reached 8C.

I remembered to do my hamstring exercises too.

Bean spent the afternoon on the sofa in the truck under a blanket. When I knocked off at 4 o’clock she woke with a terrible start from a very deep sleep and greeted me with bewildered excitement, as if I’d been far away…. Or perhaps she had, in her dreams.

2 days to the solstice :-)