Digging the dirt

The sun was out on a lovely winter day and there was hardly a breeze and it felt strangely warm.  So I looked at my mega list to work out what really needed doing the most and underneath turnip soup – which I still haven’t done yet as the family seem to get a little concerned each time I suggest it, maybe I just need to surprise them with it.  Anyway under the soup on the list was taking care of the new raised bed.  I have had everything I needed to do the task since last week – except the will.

This time guilt made me do it.  I saw the wee seedlings sitting in their pots, acclimatising to the outside world, where they have been adjusting for longer than I care to remember or admit too (which ever shows me in the best light) and I knew I couldn’t leave them there any longer.  I needed to dig!

I went into the garden to check out the state of the bed which I had made some vague attempt to sort out a while ago, but had run out of cardboard to line the bottom and block out all the weeds.  There were no excuses left to be made as we now had loads of cardboard courtesy of the new chest freezer we bought to store all the pig pieces.  However the freezer is not yet unpacked, plugged in and loaded with lovely frozen bits of pork as we haven’t had a chance to find a home for it yet and this will require a bit of reorganising and tidying of the big shed.

So the freezer was still where it was when it was loaded off the trailer, and now is standing there –barely naked in its thin plastic bag and polystyrene corners, as I stripped away it’s box to line my bed.  I removed all the packing tape and staples and dragged it out to the garden.

It was at this point I was reminded that things don’t remain in suspended animation – since I last attempted to sort this bed the weeds had grown up through the gaps where there was no cardboard.    I needed some kind of effective quick fix – so I got the lawn mower and popped in the bed and in no time the weeds were reduced to a more manageable state so I could lay the new cardboard down on top of them.

Then I hauled out my poor old wheel barrow.  My one armed, flat tired, cracked panned wheel barrow, that when it is full is a complete nightmare to push across soft ground.  But that is what I attempted to do.  I took it to my dirt mountain and that is loads smaller than it once was and started taking loads from the side where the new old greenhouse is to go.  The soil in the mountain is rich and crumbly and full of worms and just lovely dirt.

It was easy enough to fill the wheel barrow and not too difficult to empty it out into the new bed and spread it out.  But the pushing it full of dirt across the soft earth was hard work.  After five muscle aching loads I convinced Hubby the Un-Gardener that it was just the job for him and the exercise would do him good.

He fell for my sales pitch – hook, line and sinker and was soon out there digging away happily.  He didn’t use the wheel barrow though.  He grabbed an old rubbish bin and the hand trolley and it worked well for him.  It also worked well for me as now I have a lovely new garden bed full of dirt waiting to plant my poor long suffering seedlings into.

Come again soon – planting is the next task on the list and that is always a fun thing to do!

Sarah the Gardener  : o )