Earth as hard as iron

By James Middleton - Added 4th of January 2009

I have to be honest, not a lot is growing on the Middleton allotment at the moment. I haven't put in any Japanese Onions or sown my broad beans this year. I still haven't even got round to sorting out the garlic which has sprouted up from bulbs left in the ground since last year. I have now turned my attention to getting the soil ready for spring.

I have started to dig my 120x25 foot plot, a 'spit' deep, turning over the late summer weeds and remants of crops into the soil. It is proving to be a little of a chore at the moment as there is very little day light hours to get this done and so many of the available days have been incredibly cold. You shouldn't dig your soil when the surface is frosty or frozen as it will remain so for many months and even into the spring. This will hamper germination and slow growth.

Some good news however. Last year I reported that after the massive makeover on the Gun Hill Allotments, New Arley, the top soil in most places was only a few inches deep. I had covered the soil with a few inches of manure, but to my surprise found whilst digging a week or two ago, that the top soil was now about 10 inches deep! A miracle? I never know the likes of it. The production of top soil has been described as a very slow process, but this...I think that the subsoil, that was brought onto the site, must have had a high mixture of top soil blended into it. All of that rain we had this year must have aided the seperation process, pushing the clay deeper into the ground, leaving the working top soil and organic content behind.

Whatever the reason, I'm extremely happy about this and can now think about sowing the odd root vegetable within the new parts of my plot.

Credits & Links

Article written by James Middleton - www.theallotmentgarden.co.uk.

Information for Publishers

This article is copyrighted and you do not have consent to copy or redistribute it without written consent from the author.

Add your own comments

«Back

*Your Name
Comments Please do not use HTML codes within this field*	(Max chars: 1000) Characters remaining:
*Security Code	Please type the above code into the box below (case sensitive):
	Please Note: All comments are reviewed before going live.