Fianlly got down to some serious planting today.... fruit bushes; gooseberries, blackcurrants, loganberries and blackberries. There's some raspberries as well to go in, but my back was packing up by then and I decided to leave those for another day.
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It was seriously hard work. The soil here is very heavy clay and although it's rained quite heavily a couple of times over the last week, the soil is still pretty dry... to the point that it is beginning to show drying cracks. And this isn't the degraded areas I'm talking about. This is the well worked area that the previous farmer used for growing dahlias on.
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So there's two choices; dig it dry - backbreaking, or hose it down for a couple of minutes and dig it wet - easier, but after five minutes, half the contents of the garden were stuck to my boots and I was walking like something out of the Addams Family.
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Having said all that, I got quite a bit done.
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It has become clear that trying to first mulch the whole area with cardboard etc, then plant through the cardboard is just not practical. The area is simply too big and what appear to be vast amounts of cardboard disappear into the plot with little progress made.
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So I'm taking the easier route.
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Where each plant is to grow, I'm clearing the area of weeds for a couple of feet around the spot - we're quite lucky in having very few perennial or invasive weeds in that area - and the weeds complete with topsoil attached I'm dumping twenty yards away in another area that is supposed to be lawn but is in fact simply bare subsoil (i.e. solid clay). I then plant the fruit bush and thickly mulch it with newspaper (Times Sunday Supplements - only the best at this establishment). The whole area I then drench with the hosepipe.
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Hopefully then end result of all this should be a weed free basis for my forest garden and an area which become established as lawn.
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The lawn itself is actually very useful as an endless source of mulch. i can only use so much in the compost heap of course, but there are plenty of areas where iI can just dump it as organic matter onto rock, clay, subsoil and all kinds of rubbish. Over time the worms can work their magic and we can reclaim some rather badly abused bits of land for something either useful or beautiful.
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There's really something very satisfying in finding a use for everything......
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On a change of note, it's been another glorious April day, and I am very encouraged by the number of ladybirds I am seeing. It bodes well for my local predator population. When the aphids arrive they should have a bad time of it.
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Also encouraging is the number of rooks and jackdaws I see patrolling the fields. I'm not sure what exactly they are after... worms? leatherjackets? but I don't think they would be bothering if there was nothing for them to eat. I suppose this is the up-side of taking over a run-down farm. The previous owner just hadn't been doing many of the things that modern agriculture normally requires. In consequence, erosion and lack of top soil aside, the place is, ecologiccally speaking, not in too bad a shape.
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I'm beginning to think of erecting a polytunnel. To buy all the plants I want will cost a fortune. but I'm perfectly happy to grow from seed and take a year or so longer. But we're talking a lot of seeds here. And a lot of seed trays/pots etc.
