Can you dig it?

Apologies for 90s throwback reference. But I am a very happy lady. The plot is (almost) all dug over. With the help of Tom the majority has been dug and weeded. The herb/ rhubarb bed needs complete clearing of creeping buttercup which is living up well to its name. And the 'extra bit' by the water butt needs a bit of an overhaul and some thought on what would survive in such an over shadowed and out of the way place.

Thankfully for our insides there weren't that many Jerusalem artichokes coming from the remaining plants. A row of tubers were replanted by the wall and the section by the compost bins was sown with garlic. Shallots went in edging the wall border by the water butt. I did have onion sets too but as space was limited I concentrated on harder to find and more expensive alliums. I might pop them in the garden and see what happens. I have also read that you can grow onions in seed trays for planting out later so I might try that later.

A few patches show signs of self seeding/ overwintering eg chard/ beetroot. If we dug them up by accident the protocol was to apologise to the plant, replant it and hope for the best.   On the whole though I decided not to trust Tom with handweeding the patch as a) it's not a very fun job and b) I wasn't sure he would no pull out the good seedling but leave the weeds. So I still have to do this. Fun.

The weather has been lovely - dry but cold for the year. I don't mind the cold as once your are digging you warm up pretty fast. However the cold does mean we haven't spread out the manure or compost yet as it would not only keep the moisture in (good) but also trap the cold in (bad). I'll just have to wait until a warm midday to try to capture some of the sun's warmth in the soil.

Next steps are to:
- cover the earth with cardboard/ carpet/ manure/ compost.
- Dig potato trenches
- Chit potatoes
- Sow broad beans for succession
- Repot the blueberry shrubs at home
- Sow onion sets into trays
- Give carrots another go but in pots to avoid the troubles with growing in soil. Try coloured varieties.