Tilling to the bitter end

The spring sunshine marked a brilliant productive week, not only for the allotment but also for my suntan. There was lots of sunshine, lots of tilling and lots of planting. 

The tilling was endless. We tilled to the bitter end to get our soil like powder. This clearing the ground has been ongoing for weeks and it's not joke. It's strenuous work, but we got there in the end, with a couple of casualties, blisters on my hands and the raised beds are no longer straight. A little bit crooked in some places, a bit like a winding staircase, but I'm told vegetables can grow in any nook and canny. 

Then I hear about a battery-operated rotavator doing the rounds at the allotment. It's possibly the "best invention ever" my neighbour tells me. I don't doubt it. I've seen it's success on other plots and whoever invented such a thing is a genius. So tip of the year, hire a rotavator, it will save you weeks of backache and pain. Too late for us, but it's already on my Christmas wish list. 

In the trenches

There are various ways to get manure into the ground. My preference is single digging. Start at one side of the bed and dig a trench one spades depth and width. Pile this soil into a wheelbarrow. 

Using a spade add a layer of manure. Now dig a trench next to the first trench. Upturn the soil from the second trench into the first. 

Repeat this until you get to the far end of your plot and use the wheelbarrow soil to fill in the last trench. Now can you dig all that? 

A word of warning, this is tough, labour-intensive work so helpers such as husbands and little ones are an advantage!

The plot thickens

This week is all about preparing the soil. The plots had been ploughed several weeks ago and are ready to be tilled. The benefits of this are it provides more oxygen, water drainage and makes it easier for roots to penetrate the soil. 

The other reason to till the soil is to incorporate organic matter such as compost or manure to help improve the quality. As we learnt in our class this week, the ideal fertiliser is good old manure and it is plentiful supply thanks to the Young's herd of organic cows at Castlefarm. So we spent the weekend shovelling shit!