Pig Sty Avenue

The northern 1/3 of the NW bed is still neeps - and the marigolds are thriving, still. The middle section is now garlic: I dug in 3 barrow-fulls of oomska, and then left it for a week or so. Then raked it all as level as possible, and planted 3 rows of carcassonne wight  to the north, and 3 rows of picardy wight to the south of them; (I'm being precise because, whilst I found enough plant markers, I couldn't write on them, being unable to find a pen or pencil: the conditions in the old shed mean I struggle to lay my hand to anything I need).  That was last week, so say 10th October. They were planted 10ins apart, in rows about 1ft apart. (One is advised to plant them 6ins apart, but that won't give quite enough room to get a hoe between them). The final, southerly, 1/3 of the NW bed, and the whole of the Midwest bed, I dug over a week or so ago. I then left it for a week, as 'tillage prompts germination', apparently , and it seems like a good idea to give the we...

I got the rubble-infested heap of earth moved up to the old greenhouse area, now the temporary home for to-be-riddled excess earth. Then I got the rest of the Mid- and North West beds roughly dug over, and shoveled the spoil from the new drainage trench over. It's ready to have a load of horse manure dug into it, and then to have Hungarian rye sown on top of that.  Also yesterday, I got a lot of the individual bits of glass I could see, and put them in the new drainage ditch. I'm horrified at the thought of the dogs taking any more injury from it. I noticed that the worm population along the path edge of the West beds appeared to be significantly higher than anywhere else. There's a lot of heavy clay in the earth there, from digging the drainage system under the path, but also being near the path it was well drained - the phacelia did best in a yard-wide strip down the side of the path, so maybe it likes clay, more likely it liked the better drainage. I'm hoping that ...

Most of the West Side beds, I'm going to plant with Hungarian Rye this winter, because it's neutral as far as rotations go. The Mid West and NW beds were liable to flooding last year, and we don't know yet if the drainage system is going to cope this coming winter. It'll be flood tolerant if needed, and carry on breaking up the clay from the pond and the path. I need a kilo, maybe 2. But let's look at the price of a kilo, with postage to Glasgow. Greenmanure.co.uk -  £16.85 amazon -                   £8.85 Fruit Hill Farm   -          €2.20 (Bloody good price, but that's before postage, which is absurd for Glasgow, (€18.45!) Might get a better deal if you're in Ireland) And that's it. You can get more deals on rye with vetch (tares) but that would bugger-up a crop rotation. So, sorry to say [spits]... Amazon it is. I'll leave a patch go to seed next year....