The only difference between that which was developed by Baldrick, and the one by me; is that his was at least cunning. Mine is for an easy life.  The last month of so has seen a field of weeds arise from the now very concrete clay. Beaten down by the rays of sun, and at times boggy by the flash precipitation that we had, the weeds are seeking to lay claim to the plot. This happened last year and the weeds took over. It was difficult to see even where the raised beds were.  It took a lot of weedkiller, and then subsequently newspaper mulch to help keep a dampener on the evil misplaced plants. All very demoralising, when trying to make to make things work.

As the plan states above, this is the starting plan, for the summer work. It can not be achieved quickly. This process will take time and hard work.

The pictures evidence part of the achievements for today. The one the left, was a marked improvement on yesterday, where that view was obscured by bamboo cane and builders net. The runner beans planted there have been an abject disaster. The first job, was to get the bricks. Rescued from a skip. It took a while to wheelbarrow those to the plot. Then came the process of laying down newspaper, placing black plastic onto it; and then using the bricks to weigh it down. There are no doubt right ways and wrong ways to this. To use black plastic as a weed suppressant. The plastic that I have used, probably isn’t UV stable, and I should probably use green manure. I have used newspaper and cardboard before as barriers, so this is in addition to that.  Above all, the plot is about experimenting, and seeing if this works. I have yet to use green manure other than the fenugreek already sown for consumption.

Hopefully, the broad beans that you see above will be felled and then covered to decompose. There is a lot of open ground on the plot, and hopefully this will happen in the coming weeks.  By which time, it will be the autumn term, and a different plan will be required.

Yours in anticipation,

Horticultural Hobbit