The 5th Bed


During the 1st few days of 2017 I made a start on the 5th bed. One of the things I love about an allotment: it's mutability. This area was somewhat wasted with the misplaced shed, an earth path around it, weeds and rubbish. But clear the shed and rubbish, dig it over, and it's transformed into a bed for growing things.

Kind of. This is going to take some work. So far, I've dug over about 75% of it. I've got 40 full wall bricks out of it, and a barrow-full of rubble, but it wants riddling before I could plant anything except a green manure. For example, the corner by the gate, 2 or 3 sq yards, is full of what I'm guessing is crumbled tarmac. Of course, I take out what rubble (and of course the ubiquitous, bastarding broken glass) I can by hand, but an awful lot will have been left behind.


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