Exhausted! - but the patch is now dug

Got up (eventually) and went and bought the couple more Draper bags, which worked a treat and gave me enough space to make things a little easier.


Some of the day was spent reading on what soil conditions I'd need for my different plots (I'll write that up later), but much was spent digging. The plot saved some of the worst until last. There were many roots still left from the shrubs - often several feet in length(!) - that bound the soil to itself and the webbing on the side of the railway sleepers. There were even one or two final big rocks buried nice and deeply in impede progress.


For much of the final meter the soil was also almost solid in places - I know it's mainly clay at that depth, but I could have been cutting bricks out of it. I'm pleased that I've taken the time now to turn it - and hopefully will never have to do so to that depth again.

The webbing on the side was also very ragged and kept falling in and making life difficult, so I've been pinning it back in places... literally, with the use of drawing pins and a hammer, which I'm hoping will help from getting soil in behind it (which is what had been happening) and preventing it from becoming part of the bed itself.

So, after much digging well past when my body had the energy, and just as the light was fading I finally got the the end!


Next will be turning in the manure(s), but that's for another day.