hazchem writes


I have started to turn the turf in strips. I think what I will do is to
put a lot of potatoes in next year and maybe onions. Then I will put
grapevines in. I have propagated from vine cuttings so it will be
cheap. I could have more fruit trees, I have seen one plot on the site
that seems to be all apple trees and they don't seem to mind that. The
ground is moist enough now but soon it will be too hard to work, so I
will try to do as much as possible now.

Use your turf, stacked upside down, to start a compost heap. This will
do two things a) you could easily have, say, 3 heaps (perhaps with walls
constructed from discarded pallets), covering 3 sq m of your unused plot
b) in future years spread the compost 6 inches deep on the soil surface
- worms will slowly mix it in, and you'll find the humus-rich surface
layer will be much less likely to get too hard to work. The important
thing is to spread it thickly - covering 1/4 of your plot in a thick
layer is far more effective than a thin layer over the whole plot.
--
Kay