Before... and During...

The Mysterious Mound, BEFORE
What with work, study and feeling a bit off colour, I've not been getting to the allotment for as long as I'd like this week. Early dusk is another issue this weather. But I got down there Sunday afternoon, with the intention of lighting a bonfire, and clearing the mysterious mound on the SW area, near where the pond's now going to go.

...also DURING...
It's been amusing and annoying me in equal measure since I started back in June. It just sits there. It was sitting there, covered in nettles, but I glyphosated and pulled them out. Then came the ground elder, also glyphosated and left alone, under an old plastic sheet.

So, anyway I got a fire going, (using two of a box of thirty firelighters, couple of quid in the Co-op, highly recommended to the allotmenteer needing to burn rotten wood on a rainy day). And then I set about the mysterious mound with the Libyan hoe... which immediately fell apart. The end of the handle, the business end, had split, so I sawed a couple of inches off that end, and it was good to go.

...DURING...
Next to the mound is a depression, clearly dug out about 5 by 10ft. I assume that's where the mound came from, but why The Predecessor did that, dug out a section of the plot to a spade's depth, and thrown up the spoil into a heap, I cannot say. The top foot or so of the mound is a spongey mass of ground elder roots.  I'd shake the soil out of them as carefully as possible, and put the main root ball straight onto the fire. But lots of bits of roots will inevitably being falling to the ground, or breaking off as I take out the main plant. So ground elder is going to be quite a mushkila in that area next spring.  That'll likely be where the poly tunnel will stand. Blimey. The inner regions of the mound are a mixture of good (though dry) soil, and ash.

But I didn't get it half done, even, some kind of post-viral fatigue got me, and I finished with still some daylight left, which is unusual. Have to wait for the AFTER photo. 








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