The official dig has begun!

Of course, before spade met earth, we measured out our edges and tried to get them as straight as possible. I tried to be flexible with the planned measurements so that we could maximise arable space in the plot. One of the things that complicated the dig was the tree roots from the nearby Chinese Pistachio tree- but the mattock made short work of the roots!

It was great to get the edging dug out so that there was a real visual of what the finished plot would look like. Once the edging was done, the back-breaking work of digging up the grass started. I could have made my life easier by killing off the grass using newspaper, cardboard or something else to block the light. In the end, I thought about going to the newsagent to ask for old newspapers pretty much every week for 5 weeks and did nothing about it.

Once the grass had been dug up, I started to add ingredients to improve the soil. The first addition was a large pile of autumn leaves- I put these in an old washing basket and stomped on them to break them into smaller, easy-to-decompose bits. I layered this onto the beds with store-bought pea straw mulch, blood-and-bone, organic compost and cow manure. This mix is designed to add air, structure and microorganisms to the soil, helping to create a rich growing environment for the plants.

The next task was to dig through all the materials and ensure an even distribution. The idea is to do this about 2 weeks in advance so that the soil and the fertilisers have time to “settle” before planting out seeds or seedlings. Because I didn’t kill off the grass prior to digging, the settling period can also be used to turn the soil every week or so in order to ensure all the grass and freshly sprouting weeds and seeds gets killed off by lack of sunlight.