A great day gardening

The London garden 0 Comments

Out at 10am, back at 4pm, now that’s what I call a great day gardening.  Sore back, filthy fingers and ravenously hungry, but pleased with the work.  I added the compost and the manure to the plots. And know that I need at least four more bags of compost for the soil.  We had a full day’s rain on Sunday and it shows; the soil is more malleable, but sticky.  And when I dug down a deepish hole to put plenty of manure in the place where the beans will go, I struck the dread London clay.  It’s yellow, it’s solid and it sticks onto the fork and will not move.  Goodness only knows how I’m going to manage with the stuff. But plenty of compost may be the answer.  I ran out of compost for the potato beds and the top spot where I will plant the root veg.

I added the mini paths at 3m intervals (and promptly ran out of bark chips) and have to do something about that when I can tolerate a trip to the garden centre.  The rest of the time was spent weeding. We are going to have to extend the potato bed a bit to accommodate Our Favourite Veg; and I turned that.  And then the sight of all the mess at the far end of the plot was too much. I got stuck in. Filled one of the wheelie bins with the worst of the carpet bits, and filled three bags of mess and placed them nearby. I then stupidly started pulling up the rotten carpets (hence sore back) and trying to get them into some sort of order. Bring on that skip; it can’t arrive soon enough.  I did find a rose bush under the mess. Goodness only knows what it is like; and found some useful bits of wire and decent wood.

Next task was to look at the leaning apple tree.  It really is in a sorry state. Rocks like mad and the restraining straps are cutting into the bark.  So off came the straps, and down went some better stakes. I haven’t done a very professional job – but at least it leans upright now.  Shall take advice from any passing fruiterer when I am up to it.

Next trip will have to be more weeding.  And adding compost to more of the soil.  It actually looks like a rather nice bed.