Some one has asked about my dibber for planting leeks...

I do a bit of wood turning so knocked it out. Any gash bit of timber will do as long as it is wider than a loo rolls..... it has to force the soil out so that you can get the roll into the hole.

Go back to 3 Oct and you will see that I put in the Jap onions.. exactly one month.

It just shows how mild the weather has been.

Wavy........... how are yours going??

The last of the plots are done black plastic over them... the frosts are here so all is abed for winter.

But cos of the depth of soil.......... the parsnips are OK.... I know you should wait till we have had a frost.. but this is Devon.. we don't get them like you up north!!!

I had to clear the plots before I dug them out. So the leeks came out. I was not very pleased with them this year. One they bolted and I had to top off a few seed heads, and two some of them developed this bulbous onion type of feature on the end.

Cos I had to take them all out together some off the neighbours have been 'appy to accept them.

The second photo of three leeks shows the bulb, my shoe is there for size

Whilst digging out the plots I uncovered a lot of worms.... this big boy or girl or both?? was down a fair depth. Look at the size of the hole he makes, which all add to making your soil better, by it dragging stuff down etc.

I then put another load of muck in and covered this with soil. I then got my black plastic and put the plot away for the winter.
Black Plastic!!! May be because I am lazy, but I find it the easyist. The weeds do not bother to think about it, the soli warms up better, the worms can come and go as they please, and they do please. So all in all job done. Yes it does look a bit ugly hence the reason for trying to square it away. Either that or weeds.

Then refilling the plots. I am quite lucky and manure is easy to get hold of. In the old dustbin is some I got very early on in the year. Yes it is going in deep but I'll put some more on later. Note also I used the soil from the next plot to cover the first.... sometimes I do plan??

Digging out the plots

The plots were 8x4... but due to me not putting in any supports then the bad soil mixed into the good soil.So deaparate measures were taken. Dig them out put blocks in. Could be called... SOOPER DOUBLE DIGGING... still once done it should not need doing ever again....... he said??!!

Here is an example of what I tried to do before. There are the runners from pallets, but as they are wood, they rotted out, and the slugs and snails loved them. As you can see as well they have gone all higgeldy piggely... This has got to be bettera.The last one is a pumkin that was bought at the village duck race.. there were only a couple of us that managed any fruit.

As I have said the garden is split into plots.. but they had been damaged etc so had to be dug out again... the start and taking the turf off.

Beans out Jap onions in

Once the runner beans were out I put in some onions that I bought whilst on my holidays in Whitby YORKSHIRE. Yes I can hear some of you shout.. Leave the beans in for the nitrogen to go back into the soil. Normally I would do but I was changing things around so space was needed, plus I had stacks of onions that "management" told me that I should plant two beds.

Someone asked me about bean canes. I have travelled throughout the country and the basic method is two bamboo canes tied at the top and repeated along the row.

One method I have not used is very simular... but the canes are put in a circle and tied at the top giving a wigwam effect.

Here are a couple of phots of mine as I was taking them down this year.

The start

I first moved into the house in 1971

The garden was bigger then and in 1982/3 I excavated the land and built a garage on the bottom bit, which we now use as the main entrance as the other is onto the main road.

Originally the veg plot was on the left as you look from the house, and the lawn was on the right.
This changed when "management" said that there should be a change, this would have been about 1992,erish. The original veg plot had been worked since the house was built in about 1905, so the soil was very good. I managed through a fair bit of moving the soil around to keep it for my , I will say raised beds, but they are sunken beds.

What was the lawn, is where the old house used to stand, and builders have not really changed very much in the last 100 years, and the lawn was about 6 inches of basic top soil, then builders rubble.

It was, I made the decision this time, to put in the suncken beds, but first to get rid of the rubble. Saw a local farmer, borrowed a trailer (big one) and made 8' by 4' beds, taking all the rubble out down to proper sub soil. This was to a depth of about 2feet. Had to have a couple of trips with the trailer. Interestingly in the rubble were all the normal, lime motar, slates, but best were a fair amout of 1'by1' by1" thick floor tiles.... in good condition.. but not a lot of them were whole.

Having got all that lot out, I had comments from across the road...... well everybody else has a shed at the bottom of the garden.... I have a pub!!.... thinking that I was taking over from the local graveyard. I then saw a local farmer, and for a couple of quid, filled the holes with cow muck, and covered with the soil I had saved.

Phweee, that lot done set out about planting things, and had no problem, good soil, nice and easy plots to sow and weed, and all was tweekerty boo in the land of Yorkie.

The problems then started when the grass at the side of the plots sort of started to slip away, and there was no actuall boundry between lawn and plot. So what to do??

A mate works making up, and renewing pallets, so for a couple of pints aquired a stack of runners from the old pallets. Once again dug out the plots put in the bits of wood, and sat back once again, cos all was tweekerty boo.

As we all know, that situation never lasts for long.

The wood was not a good option and soon started to rot, and got alsorts of fugus appearing around the wood.

So at the time I was driving a lorry and a load of plastic down pipe, and some other plastic pipe fell off the back of said lorry, without being damaged. This has been very good... but the slugs and snails love it, and set up home as cosy,as could be.

Not only that but we had a problem with the sewer.... don't ask!!... but they had to dig a 6'to7' hole to get to the pipe in the garden... and knocked out a couple of the plots with the mini digger they brought in. (not worth sorting with the insurance as I just wanted the pipe sorting out... you would too!)

Now to what I hope to be the last in the line of sorting out the plots.

Concete blocks.
Yes they look 'orrible, but with that bit of cement to keep them apart, or is it stick them together!! I never know, and a bit of 4"by4" on the top..... all will be tweekerty boo again shortly.

So that is where I am at the moment...... in a trench about 2' deep laying blocks to keep the sides up. I have also made them slightly proud of the grass so as it is easer to cut around them.