Levelling out where I have triple dug.

I filled the last trench with compost and a dressing of pigeon manure.  Pigeon manure is serious fertilizer.

Several people came and talked.  It is good to talk but I really needed to crack on though.

Before putting the soil back in the trench, I put a new concrete slab in at the end of the row to keep  the soil from falling onto the path; a small concrete slab finished off this curbing. I could not use full sized concrete slabs because this is where a drainage pipe goes across towards the trackway.  Really I should have buried the pipe a little deeper.

I put the subsoil back first making mixing cones of soil in the trenches.  I think that subsoil is thoroughly mixed now and turned much darker because last years compost was mixed throughout it.  Although it is not as good as my top soil it has improved from a sandy clay to a friable soil with lots of compost throughout.

I levelled out the subsoil in the trench with a rake.  After this I put the top soil back making mixing cones with the soil again.

The bed is covered with mounds of soil so these had to be levelled out.  I have begun this and it has been easier than I expected.  Getting all the soil level will take some time and I will do it over several days.  I have other big projects that I want to do before the winter so I will start doing these tomorrow.

I will start to move the strawberries to their new bed; take the sweet pea plants off the canes by undoing the wire ties. I will put the ties in the tie tub and keep them for next year.  I am debating what to do with the canes.  I would like to keep them in the store shed like I did last year, however the store shed is beginning to fill up with stored vegetables and fruit.  (Just got some Bramleys today.)  So I might leave them outside this year.  I will put them in a compost bay that I am not using.  I will reconsider this again when I take the canes out.

I must remember to take some more photographs of the allotment.

The Felthenam first peas have not done very well.  I think that this is due to the dry weather and I have not been watering them.  I think that I will just dig over this area again and put green manure on it.

I will have to plant out the broad beans and the leeks I have in the greenhouse.  I am trying to avoid planting the leeks until the threat of the onion miner fly Phytomyza gymnostoma has diminished.  Have a look at

http://fera.defra.gov.uk/plants/plantHealth/pestsDiseases/documents/phytomyza.pdf

I have decided to cover the bay tree in fleece during the winter to try to keep it alive.  It was hit really hard by the frost during last winter.