Thursday 23 January 2014

Not quite what is meant by 'Double Digging'.



I do know what double digging is and if I had done it properly first time around then I wouldn't have spent an afternoon digging over again two squarers that had a spot of couch grass starting to grow back. Around about October is when I first cleared the area, checking through every clump I dug up for weeds and roots, knowing full well that any bits of couch grass roots left in the soil would grow again. I'd like to think that the roots that got left behind where small, easily missed and with the mild winter, had grown and started to take hold, because I managed to fill a shopping bag full of roots and some of them were quite long. It was also very hard work digging due to the soil being so wet and boggy. It's not surprising with the rain we've been having all winter. To be honest it has felt like a long drawn out autumn that winter. Something I will have to remember when I see the results of my Japanese white onions and Red onions. Talking of which, the whites seem to have slowed down growing and the reds are still being a bit timid with only two showing through. But I still have until August so I'm not too worried, the whites have until may.

My path is coming on quite nicely, although you can't really tell from the photo. I am still in need of more slabs, but I have my eye's on some leaning against a garden wall en route to the allotment. I think I need to knock on some doors again to finish off the path. The sooner I can finish it, the happier I'll be. But I'm already way ahead this year compared to last year, the ground work you understand. With spring only five or six weeks away, I feel I'm in strong position for a good year at the allotment this year. As they say 'Every cloud has a silver lining', all my back breaking work will hopefully pay off. I must say, I'm looking forward to this year, not just for what I hope to grow, but for the 'Garden Connect' project. I do hope that you can follow my progress in this project as well as the other people around the world taking part. Till next time and thanks for reading.


2 comments:

  1. Good luck this year. I read your blog this morning and it brought back a whole heap of memories. I learned to farm in Ireland and rwading this made me miss my wellingtons, toads, rain, gale force winds, and brambles. Well maybe not the brambles. Fantastic jorney. Keep up the good work and I send you good carrot energy. By the way I had a friend in ireland who grew his carrots in sand in a giant recycled fish box above ground. I never had much luck with carrots either. All the best

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  2. Red onions always seem more reluctant to grow than the normal yellow ones.

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