End in Sight

A slightly misty morning, but quite clear, so we got 'straight' out to continue cutting the fruit beds. (A cat wanted his breakfast at 0720, which nudged us towards then getting up around 8.) We got on well, with rain stopping play neatly for lunch, and there's probably only another morning's work to cut the last stretch of both end beds.

As we progressed, the ground became noticeably more stony, which is interesting. As I was cutting the turves, rather than digging the ground over, I wasn't so aware, but Liz felt there were clearly patches of stones: perhaps remnants of a stone wall or stable. Either way, the stones to a decent depth (the clay underfooting) have been removed, along with roots, which are probably coming from either the conifer at the edge of the copse, or from the (overgrown) shrubs in the lowest terracing bed. Also of note was the change in soil: it's become noticeably more sandy as we've worked east. As before, we'll barrow plenty of manure onto the beds when we can: for now it's just dug over. The loam stack has taken over one of the future vegetable beds---I think the remainder will be sufficient to get started---and is looking reasonably neat: it's a bit more squared off, instead of resembling a ship burial.

We fleeced up the tender plants, and the gladioli: tonight's looking to be cold. Few more cuttings taken, too: an osteospermum's looking a bit leggy, so that, and a few of a variegated ivy. The gladioli will hopefully start ripening, and can be lifted soon.