This weekend saw the beginnings of some actual work on our little patch of earth. We haven't got as far as actually digging the beds yet, however they have now been marked out as per a more accurate plan I drew up, and yesterday the turf was lifted off the bed areas. At least it looks like the bare bones of a veggie garden now!
String and canes marking out the beds and spaces for paths
After marking out the beds with string and canes, we both had a good walk around our designated 'paths' to see how they felt and make sure we can access all areas of the beds from the edges. It was great to see how to size of the beds looked on the ground.
The following day, the turf was lifted in the bed areas. Again, weather permitting, actually double-digging the beds adding in organic matter and also improving drainage at the subsoil level should hopefully get done next weekend.
Looking very pleased with myself just after we finished marking out
Manpower - James gets stuck into lifting the turf
4 comments:
Hi there - noticing your plea for help, I thought I'd offer my wisdom on double digging in wet winter:
+ Use a spade with a really good stainless steel spade.
+ Take it slowly and watch your back. Have an ice pack ready.
+ Plan out where you are going to put the soil as you dig. I ended up using a tarp to put the soil on but even that seemed to be in the way no matter what. Oh, and as you are putting manure in, you’ll end up with loads of soil left over. Raised beds should help take up this extra.
+ Be prepared for lots of glass. No idea why, but it seems the rule is that ever garden has to be at least 7% glass.
+ It will take longer than you think.
+ You will hurt. Oh yes.
You can see some of my digging tales of woe back here: http://www.wildburro.co.uk/2005/10/13/dig-dig-for-agony/
In fact just searching for double digging reveals a litany of pain and injury to make you tremble :)
Good luck!
hb - www.wildburro.co.uk
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Thanks for the advice!
I'm sure future posts will contain words such as stiff, pain, back, sodding hard work and any other grumbles coming from my wonderful Mr. Muscle who will be doing said digging.
Great to see most of the grass being put to a veggie garden.
As for digging pains - keep a heavy hand with the white wine in summer and the red in winter - it seems to ease the kinks.
Seriously watch your back - I know have to dig kneeling down (I guess my arms and shoulders will be the next to go) and take it slowly - don't overload the spade. Also I've never ever double dug and seemed to get away with going good crops. Always on the look out for a short cut!
I did consider a quicker method as the dreaded double-digging seems to be a hell of a job.
Our soil is so heavy though and we need to improve drainage as well as improve the soil nutrients...
We will certainly take our time and I just hope our crops are very appreciative of our hard work to give them a good home!
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