Side of Plot Progress

Winter is certainly upon us in that it has been cold & damp all week - yesterday was too horrible with freezing drizzle to contemplate a trip to the Hill, but towards lunchtime today it was rather more promising, so off I went.

I was just admiring the ONIONS (electic) sprouting in bed d2, & unloading half a dozen tomato pots from the car in order to empty the compost into the bean trench, when John Badger from the bottom came up complete with festive holly spring on the front of his woolly hat.

"Have you seen your present?" he asked, & pointed over to the side of the shed where three clear demijohns nestled. "They need a bit of a clean up, but I think that they should be ok."

I thanked him profusely, & off he went to the club house. And if he'd stopped there rather longer than he did, I would have gone up & bought him a drink, but by the time I was ready to head up there, he was on his way home. Next time!

I popped the demijohns away in the car, & then the plan was to move the swiss chard from the end of bed d2 across a bit then shorten the bed by 4', & if I had time, to dig up the leeks from the end of bed b2 & heel them in further along so that I could shorten that bed too.

Once this is done it will leave a strip about 6' wide all the way from the front to the back of the plot at neighbour Ted's side.

I want to dig the whole of the strip over before started to put in the 4' wide, 8' long beds (which will be for the fruit & permanent crops) as it's all a bit wonky at the moment and I can take the opportunity to level it all.

The soil is very wet indeed in the beds, & it was the work of a few minutes to relocate the swiss chard, & once I'd shortened the bed, I started to fork the side strip over from the front of the plot back past beds d2, d1 and c2.

It then started to drizzle, so I called it a day, cutting a CABBAGE (kilaxy), some spears of CALABRESE (waltham) & digging half a dozen LEEKS (mrs d) for eating in the week, then back home for a hot bath & the rest of the afternoon spent in front of the fire with a good book.