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| Hugh's garden on the 11th March 2012 |
Busy time for the garden and what a busy day today. I was in the garden from 7:30am, and what a treat it was, hearing nature at its early morning best. I started by planting some of the recently acquired bareroot plants, that I haven't managed to put in yet. I also progressed on to getting some of the shrubs and roses I have been keeping in pots over the the past couple of years, planted in to the soil. As they were reasonably big, probably 3-4 times the size of standard garden centre plants, the holes they had to be put in, had to be large enough to take the plant, and allow for working in plenty of good compost too.
In digging these holes, the average being 3ft circles (1m) and digging down between 18 inches and 2ft deep (45cm - 60cm for the more metric-minded folks!), I came across wire, rubble, hardcore and in some places pockets of builders sand, all of which had to be removed.
Talk about back-breaking work!
For each plant I dug down a spade debth to start, removing the soil to a wheelbarrow, and then removing what ever undesirable substances I came across. I then put in a good layer of well rotted manure and compost, mixing in some soil and then using about a half can of water to drench this mix. Once the water drained away, I placed the plant in to the hole filling around it with more soil from the wheelbarrow, mixed with more compost and fish, blood and bone meal, followed by a thorough soaking with more water.
This may sound like a lot of work, but in the longer term it will be very well worth while, and I know the plants will benefit from so much richness put into the soil. I am a great fan of ensuring the soil is looked after, as I always say:
"the more effort you put in to the soil, the more you will get it back through your plants"
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