Photo's from Thursday 27th November

The leaf compost bin
View from the East, in the middle of the plot, looking 'down' to the West
View from the NE corner, with the happy raspberry canes in the foreground
View from the SE corner looking 'down', with the bags of rubbish in the foreground

Before and After 1 month of work

'After 1 month'....view from NW corner of plot looking 'up' to the East

'Before' ...view from the same area

Tea and biscuits......

Well thanks to the US Thanksgiving holiday, I was given the opportunity to get a bit more work done on the plot. Karen very kindly gave me a lift down there for my morning's workout, as I had the kitchen waste and 2 hugs bags of leaves from Adrian. All pretty quiet down there, although Derek was working away and the Sun even managed to come out for a little while. It was so warm I had to take my fleece off, although it did make up for it and start raining too, but not for long.

As I was hoping, I used my mattock to good use once again and cleared the final two 'rotation' beds, in order that I could prepare each bed ready for double digging. I have to say it did feel good to finally get the grass/weeds/brambles/carpet, etc all cleared so I could actually see the plot and start to get an idea of where all the fruit and veg will grow.

Now for the most important bit. For the first time, I sat down and had a cup of tea (well a few by the end) from my flask and some biscuits. Now that was a nice feeling, my first rest whilst I've been at work on the plot. It certainly did taste good and gave me the encouragement to get the rest done...I'm looking forward to many more of them, that's for sure!

I then set to work on each bed, digging a 'spit' and moving the soil to the other end of each bed and then each time I go down, I shall move from one bed to another to make sure whatever digging I get done, I shall have each bed at least partially ready to go.

I also sorted out the mass of carpet, rolled up the bits I could use and put them in front of the compost bins out of the way. With the remainder, I filled some of my old bags to go to the tip at some point with the other rubbish I had collected.

Finally, I used some old compost bin parts, I found lying around and made up a container for the leaves to make leaf mould and emptied the leaves I had into it. Still plenty of room, so I shall have to get a few more, as that will come in handy next year.

Amazing to think it was just over a month ago I first came down to the plot and took the first photo's. I took some more to show what I'd been up to and now it's a lot of hard work digging and getting out all those pesky roots.

Autumn Bliss....

Amazing, it didn't rain, but boy was it cold. I'm sure you'd call it perfect digging weather, nice and cold but plenty of sunshine...Autumn Bliss indeed.

I set out on Saturday morning wrapped up and ready for action. I set to work on the first bed getting enough dug to be able to plant the Autumn Bliss raspberry canes, which I had soaked overnight. Having used some compost I put the canes in and they looked good and I also got an extra one free, so squeezed in 6 in the row. I still have a bit more digging to do there to finish it off.

However, having got the last of the raspberry canes in, I wanted to get as much of the plot cleared to be able to see the 4 'rotating beds', so set to work with the scythe and mattock and cleared 2 beds on the South side and then starting moving the bonfire pile onto the new bed ready for burning.

I also rolled up a lot of the carpet and piled that up in front of the compost bins, although there is another pile left to sort out, that you can see in one of the photo's. I think I shall use the carpet to cover the path down the middle, otherwise I shall have a few trips to the local recycle/rubbish centre to get rid of it.

Finally, I cut down a lot of the weeds and grass on the second bed on the North side of the plot. This leaves me that bed to clear with the mattock and then a final bed on the North side to clear. With luck I plan to do that this coming Thursday, as it's Thanksgiving, so I get a day off and we are busy this weekend, so not likely to get anything done. Let's hope it isn't pouring on Thursday morning.

Once I've got the beds sorted, I'm going to get each plot ready for double digging and then move from one to another as I dig, as I don't think I'll get it all done before the spring, but if I can get half of each bed done, then that should be enough to be able to grow lots of stuff next year.

Quick update this week as very, very busy.

Photo's from Saturday 22nd November

1. Looking West over raspberry canes, from the middle of the East of the plot.
2. Looking East over Compost Bins, with large pile of carpet and the 'bonfire' pile in foreground.
3. From SW corner, showing the 3 beds on the South side of the plot (one has the bonfire on it).
4. From SE corner showing the 1st permanent bed with the raspberry canes, almost all dug.

Roots and Raspberries.........

What a exciting weekend. The FIRST plants go in. Yipppeeeeeeeee.....

I wasn't expecting to be able to do much this weekend, but on Friday the Raspberry Canes had arrived from a nursery I found on ebay (total cost for 15 canes was £22.50 inc postage), for what I thought was pretty good value and also saved me a lot of time in visiting local garden centres and trying to find what I wanted for the right price.

While Tom was playing football, I set to work on more double digging and uncovering more and more of my now best friends, the ROOTS. Arrghhhh, they are everywhere and I have to get rid of them otherwise it will ruin my plot. Unfortunately, because there are so many I don't get to use the Rotovator, so it's all down to manual labour, sweat and tears. I worked out that it takes about an hour to dig and clear a length of the bed to 3 spades' width and get all the roots and stones/flint out. I had a quick tally as I was walking home and figured to dig the whole plot like that is going to take into March 2009, doing a couple of hours each weekend. That seems like a lot, so I need to put my mind to trying to move that along somehow....and it doesn't include time for me to build and shed and have lots of cups of tea.

That was it for Saturday, but as we weren't planning on doing too much on Sunday, I was fortunate enough to secure a short pass for an hour or two. Well, I thought it was more like two, but the issuer of the pass, figured one, so I wasn't Top of the Class when I got home before lunch. However, I dug another row (so that was the hour taken up), put plenty of manure on the areas where the canes were going to go and bashed in some posts to give me a 'line' and mark out where the proper poles will go.....hold on, back up a bit...

When I got down on Sunday, after Karen had given me a lift so I could take all the garden waste to the compost bins, I also bought 8 bags of Nigel's manure and he very kindly wheeled them down to my plot and we piled them up ready for use. So, that was another £22. I really hope that next year I am able to produce a lot of compost myself as at this rate and the quality of the soil, each bed is going to need 6 bags, so to do the lot is going to cost £99.

Right so now I have the compost and the bed is mostly ready. I was conscious of the time and wanted to get at least some of the raspberry canes in. I decided to plant the 2 types of Summer Fruiting types, Glen Ample and Glen Prosen and the soil was nice and crumbly with the manure, so I think they'll be quite happy where they are. As you can see from the last set of posts, I wasn't able to plant the Autumn Bliss, so that will have to wait until next week, when I complete another row of digging. I think there is only a couple more rows to do and then that bed will be finished. I'll also have a bit of the room left, so I'll have to think about what could go there.

The next few weeks are going to be very monotonous, with digging, picking out roots and stones as well as clearing the other beds and doing the same over and over again. BUT, it's all this hard work now that should pay dividends in the future, so I'll just put my head down and carry on. Oh and yes, it did rain again...pretty much started when I got there on Sunday, but then it always does when I go so no surprise there..I'm sure the raspberries like it though, so I'll just imagine their happy little faces and unbounded joy at their new home.

Photo's of the First Raspberry Canes all planted.

1. Freshly dug, manured bed with 10 Summer Fruiting Raspberry Canes....and pit for Autumn Fruiting.
2. View of the bed from the East looking West.