Finding My Roots

well, maybe not my roots, but certainly those of my trees. Today i have opened up a new bed some 4ft x 6ft, under the new management 'maintenance reduction' directive, or to put it another way, Julie has told me she wants as little mowing as possible down the bottom half of the garden, meaning i can remove most of the turf and plant more veg.

Getting the turf of was remarkably easy, which belied the nightmare that was the actual digging. Each and every spit required levering, twisting, and pulling to free it of the roots, and dozens of root pieces ranging from thin fibres to inch thick taproots, needed removing. Freddy the bunny was watching all this from his run a few feet away.

Once dug, getting it into a usable seed bed was no trouble, just a few cycles of tread and rake to break up the chunks, level the plot, and firm the ground. And of course pulling out more roots as they surfaced.

Three rows of stuttgarter onions, ten per row, have gone into the new bed. Also, four flat drills were created for peas. Only the middle two drills have had peas sown, early onwards, forty per drill. The other two drills will be sown once the first pea seedlings are established, this way a good, prolonged crop should be possible.

Trouble now is, ive still a tub full of onions sets. Theres now way i can plant them all (no way i could eat them all if i did!) but when its only a quid for a bag you cant really justify getting them in smaller quantities. Perhaps i can pass them onto Barry if he's not already put his in.