M came down to the plot with me yesterday to help me finish extending one of our beds which I had decided to enlarge. I find it hard to think in metric measures on the plot and the amount of turf we removed was roughly rectangular, a foot and a half by six feet (measured by green wellingtons).
I gave the whole area a very quick weeding while M, who has learned not to rush things, shook off the excess soil and put the sods that she had cut into the barrow for transportation. Some them were very heavy and very soggy. The yellow clay M uncovered right at the bottom looked like modelling clay.
As I worked I moved outward from the central cultivated area where last season we grew tomatoes in one half and chard in the other. This was the good soil, enriched over several seasons and easy to fork and weed. Next we reached the margins where meadow grass, dandelions and buttercups unceasingly attempt to colonise the beds. Then we made a fresh inroad into the layer just above the subsoil, full of flinty pebbles.
We barrowed out two and a half loads of manure. Most of the rich stuff went, where most needed, on top of the subsoil.
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