I was going to edge Bed 1 with cardboard, but it quickly became clear that it’s not really possible once the bed is at all filled. It needs to be the first step. Fortunately I don’t think it’ll really be a problem in this bed, and I’ll keep an eye on it in case anything needs a squirt of weedkiller.

I pretty much weeded the bed and removed some clay. The big verbena has been moved into the clump in the left border. Making the hole at least allowed me to take out a bit of couch grass root.

I’ve covered the bed with a thick layer of newspaper and put the plastic down too. The beds have been made a bit narrower thanks to the thickness of the wood, but I don’t think it’ll be a problem. I’ll open this bed as soon as it’s feasible to build its layers of leaf mould, manure and compost. The manure is super cheap at the moment, so I’ve bought another 8 sacks.

I’ve bagged up some of my clay piles so that I don’t keep walking on them and they don’t slowly merge back into the garden.