Cheerleading desperately required!!

[posie]

Ok, this is the deal, I'm shattered, I've got blisters on my blisters, my back is in half and seriously beginning to wonder if I've bitten off more than I can chew.  No doubt it's just a bad day, but encouragement is desperately required!  Also will someone please tell me if this soil is fine enough because I'm losing the will to live trying to do it!  It's been dug with a fork twice, rotivated once and hand cultivated twice now..... :-\

These beds are for 2 crops of carrots and 3 of potatoes, if that makes any difference.

[posie]

[Twirlie]

Hey posie you're so fine
You're so fine you blow my mind
Hey Posie clap! clap!      clap!
Hey Posie clap! clap!      clap!
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Sorry I couldn't resist, Twirlie is a dancer after all!!!!!! ;D

Looking good, I am jealous as I have a bad back and can't dig or dance at the moment!

Twirls
Helen ;D

[posie]

 ;D  that made me giggle Twirly and it just happens to be one of my favourite 80's songs ever! Thanks!

[Tee Gee]

Looks good to me!

If you are concerned it is not fine enough for carrots try forming a little furrow and filling it with compost then sowing your seeds into that then your carrots will do the rest.

Just think when you lift that first root of potatoes, lightly boil them toss them in butter Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!

Then when you pull a carrot and wipe the soil off it and  bite a mouthful off it.

Then you will forget all about how you feel now!!

[Twirlie]

Hee Hee!!!  Me to, I love that song! ;D  Glad to share a smile :D

[caroline7758]

Don't think it needs to be fine for potatoes. In  fact after all that hard work i would save the well dug bit for something else and put your spuds in a less perfect patch.

[Jeannine]

That looks just wonderful, smashing job and you have the blisters to prove it.Don't beat yourself with a noodle, you have worked very hard and you will be so proud when you see stuff starting to grow.

I wish mine looked like that.

XX Jeannine

PS Rah Rah Rah!!! ;D ;D

[SMP1704]

That's a fantastic job - of course it isn't a fine tilth - it's only just been converted from scrub land

Put your spuds and they will do a great job of breaking up the soil even more

Do as TG says with the carrots or if you want to do a gold star job on the carrot bed get a bag of sharp sand and a couple of bags of compo, tip over the carrot bed and fork in, rake - you will probably end up with a border of hard lumps of soil, then if you wanted to fill each drill with more compost then sow seeds and cover with a fine sprinkle of compost.

I did that in my first year and had the best carrots on the site ;D but shame about the carrot fly :'(

You need to get some stuff planted - that will make you feel better

[posie]

That's a fantastic job - of course it isn't a fine tilth - it's only just been converted from scrub land

I'm printing this out for my grandmother to read - it's been a longstanding argument between us lol - she keeps saying it should be, I keep saying it will be but not this year!!!

Feel a bit better now, but have a 1 inch blister right in the palm of my hand which REALLY hurts!  :'(

That'll teach me to buy cheap leather gardening gloves..... :)

[Robert_Brenchley]

If the perennial weeds are out it's fine. I discovered in my first year that even small seeds will germinate happily in horrible lumpy soil, and I've never bothered about it since.

[Mr Smith]

Posie,
          We are in a similar position with our lotti, keep putting the graft in and you will get there, even today I have rough dug the last of our lotti but after a couple of hours on Monday with the rotovator I will be the boss of it :).

[manicscousers]

yay, go, posie, go..the only way you'd get a fine tilth would be to riddle the whole bloomin' lot..just think, weeds manage to grow everywhere so most plants can do the same  ;D

[saddad]

Have you had much rain Posie? Ours forms much larger lumps but can only be broken down into a tilth after a good downpour... then it tends to cap.. so you have to use compost for the carrot drills!
::)

[posie]

Not had huge amounts of rain, maybe a day or so in the last few weeks.  The frost broke a lot of it up which helped, had to leave it for a few days for the blister to heal, but going to go back up in the week and start on the other 5 beds, aiming to do one a day so hopefully should be done in a couple of weeks.  I'd rather get it done sooner but unfortunately uni beckons and boring books need to be read  :(  I know where I'd rather be!

[manicscousers]

just think, though, posie..in another couple of weeks, it'll all be done..still in time for growing time.. ;D

[posie]

Yep and then its on to the fruit patch. which thankfully is a lot smaller!   :)

[djbrenton]

Once the weather has been at the new surface for a week, you should find that raking it will bring it down to a finer tilth. When I cleared land I just turned it over whilst weeding and let the weather do it's work.

[Kea]

Wish my plot looked that good. Great path is that woven weed fabric?

[posie]

Yep, but it will be covered in bark once I get my lazy backside down to the recycling centre!  However one mistake I did make was to dig everything, instead of leaving the paths as they were, so the soil underneath it is quite lumpy unfortunately.  Still we live n learn!  ;D