In fields of cold

13 March 2010

Last November I sowed green manure in my all but empty vegetable patch in an effort to be extra green-fingered and use the patch over winter to improve the soil. The grass would grow over the cold months and the roots would lock in the nitrogen and magic unicorns from which the next crop would benefit. Now spring is around the corner, so it was time to cut down and dig in the lush rye.

Wowee, just look at all that rye! It’s a veritable prairie at the end of the garden.

Ahem.

Not a lot had happened. I’d carefully counted the weeks when I sowed the seed, working out when I’d need to cut the rye, cover it with black polythene and when I’d need to then dig it up before I started work on sowing the next crop. Except with just a scattering of little mini rye shoots here and there, there wasn’t much call for cutting, or covering. Hell, there was barely any need for digging; I could have just glared at it.

There was still work to be done, though, as there were the remaining carrots to pull, a number of which were a reasonable size, with not much carrot fly damage, despite having been available to them for so long. So I dug those up and then collected up all the hawthorn twigs that had dropped from the hedge. It won’t be long now before that hedge – currently see-through – begins bursting into dense green life. I deconstructed the bean poles against the back of Juniper Lodge and then gave the whole patch a quick dig, turning the ground over for the robin that was waiting to come down and pick it over for snacks.

It all looks much nicer now and the earth seems much more welcoming than the slab-like appearance the clay soil acquires when it’s been walked on and rained on for months. I suppose I should start thinking about what to grow this year …