Part of the vegetable plot was badly neglected over the last four or five months. Due mainly to a family crisis (brother had a stroke), the wet summer and me being depressed because of the crisis. Or in the words of Yul Bryner in the King and I:
"Excetera, excetera."...
Any way. It's dryish today and I have decided to tackle the overgrown part of the veg plot. This involved getting my spade and digging a foot deep trench and filling my wheelbarrow with the soil and taking it the other end of the plot to fill in the last trench, I decided it was silly to just dump or compost the annual weeds. So I hand weeded and filled an old plastic paint (very strong) bucket with annual weeds, vegetable peelings, grass and nettle tops, but not potato peelings because their eyes will sprout and you will end up with rogue potato plants next year.
Trenches filled with weeds..
Overgrown area waiting to be trenched and hand weeding. You can dig them off with your Azada grubbing hoe or just with the blade of the spade. I prefer to hand weed them and pull out any perennial weeds roots like docks and nettles. If you want to do job really thoroughly. When you dig out the first foot of soil in the trench. Get a fork or pike and break up the compacted 'pan' of subsoil and clay. New houses are prone to hard pans from site traffic compacting the soil. It also helps drainage and to bring air and oxygen into the soil.
If you read any old gardening books. You will read about 'bastard' trenching. Lots of double digging and a walk like the Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Nowadays it's common to see no digging being practiced on vegetable plots. You spread your compost out on top of the surface and the worms and rain take the compost down under the soil. I think it's a good system if your compost is well decomposed. But if it's not it will grow out on top of the soil. Anybody like trench composting?
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