A New Season...

And hopefully I'll start using this blog in the way I intended to.  So here it is, the time to start getting seeds planted, ready to be transplanted in a few weeks.  Last year I never visited the plot until the middle of March.  Big mistake, seeing as we had one of the hottest Aprils on record, which rapidly turned my clay soil into concrete.  I took a walk down to the plot last week to see how the ground was.

It was pretty claggy underfoot, and there were patches of snow clinging on, a lot different from the last time I saw it.  It looked neglected and more than a little sad.  My purple sprouting brocolli I was so looking forward to eating had been decimated by the pigeons and weather.

This is the second time I've tried to grow this and the second time I've failed.  I obviously need to do something other than the "leave them for the winter and hope for the best" approach that I've been taking so far.  


There were a few signs of life around the plot though.  The rhubarb I was meant to split over winter was showing the first hopeful buds.

And then there were the tell tale signs of life pointing to the pesky rabbits that had feasted on the beetroot I left in the ground over winter.

But there was one sight more than any of the others that made me want to pick up tools.  

The one bit of land that remained untackled since I took on the additional half plot last year and the future chicken run, hidden under a mass of perennial weeds that I threw there.  I knew how important it was to build the run before the growing season really does begin for two reasons.  The perennial weeds will show me no mercy and I know how precious time is when planting begins in earnest again.


Mr Lottie lets me do my own thing at the plot as a rule but I'm banned from all but the simplest of constructions.  My head just doesn't work that way but it was able to work out that the merest mention of me building the run by myself would send him running for the work tools.  The man who sold me the fencing (we'll call him T) has a run made from the same stuff and luckily for me he was on site and willing to share his knowledge.  After finding out enough about putting the run together to make Mr Lottie think I was genuinely going to do it myself unless he helped, I set about part 2 of the plan.

If this trench wasn't enough to convince him I was serious, nothing would be.  Clay soil is so much easier to deal with when it's wet.  T came down to have a look at my progress and I think he was secretly impressed because he helped me to finish moving the fence panels.  Another half hour of digging and this was the result.

6 metres of trench dug out to 1 spade depth.  When I locked up for the night I had rosy cheeks, a streaming nose and a very satisfied feeling inside.