Woody digs again; Dig, Woody, Dig

At last, the coincidence of a decent day and not being at work. I've started digging from the top plot down, taking the opportunity to extend it and put piles of manure in. Here's a 'Before'

and here's an 'After', taken in the almost-dark-at-4-o'clock light.

Eleven bags of manure 'after' to be precise, although they weren't huge bags. I was going to say that should help with a better crop of garlic next year but have just discovered that garlic needs to be on a long (6 years!!) rotation to ensure build up of eelworm doesn't happen. That may explain this year's poor crop. I tend to think of anything in the same family as leeks being pretty much indestructible. That said, the leeks are pretty feeble ths year too, although that's mostly due to malnutrition.

Problem with having an allotment on a very steep slope, in a wet year like this one, is that all the nutriments go whistling straight down the hill. And I was so dispirited by the poor show, drowning, rotting off etc that I couldn't get round to feeding the beggars again.

Mind you, look at the state of the lettuce plantation (foreground).

Poor show, Woody. Do better next year.

And finally, Number 2 in an Occasional Series of Favourite Tools - The Cornish (aka Irish) spade.

It's a cross between a pointy shovel and a spade. Takes a bit of getting used to - you miss a cross piece at the top of the handle but you do get excellent leverage from that really long handle.