Earth

I moved the comfrey plants, and some others that were around down to the small unwaterlogged scrap of ground, but didn't plant them, I was in too much of a digging mood. I've already lifted a few of the paving slabs, and I dug down into the soggy clay/topsoil beneath them. The real clay subsoil is about a foot down, so that's where I need to get to when the whole path is lifted and trench dug. I came back to it an hour later, and it had filled with water. So I'm on the right course, digging down a foot will drain the beds.

And then I set about the spoil heap near the pond location. Note to self, here: if you're going to dig a hole, move the spoil somewhere, because you're only going to have to come back to it later. I barrowed this onto the hollow looking areas on the beds. Then I went back to the old brick path I've discovered. and continued uncovering it, almost to the fence. Glad it's there, it's giving a mark of where the levels should be, where they once were. The more I dig and barrow and move stuff around, the more it's obvious: this allotment has been twisted out of shape.

It's like trying to untangle a slinky that's been in the hands of a particularly malicious child for half an hour. You know what it should look like, but getting each bit of it back to its original place is just so difficult. I thought the NW bed was level enough, but it's not.

Getting there. first job is to chamfer off the top layer from the pond area to the level of the rediscovered path, barrowing the earth onto the beds. They need to be nice and plump. Dear me though, hard work, every muscle did its job this afternoon. Better than any gym.