I went back to Bed 6 this morning and finished removing the grass and edged and covered the second half with cardboard. I magically remembered to put the hügel sticks down. I did a pretty good layer, but am also pretty aware that I’ve got lots yet to go.

I topped the whole thing with a fat layer of manure, and put the plastic back on.

The new coconut was on the ground, which the robins didn’t seem to mind, but I’ve hung it low in the apple tree now. The robin was happy with that and when I left, the great tit was giving off at the top of the tree.

I’ve got lots of edging left – these plus a bigger pile on the other side of the shed. I don’t need all of them, just some. Aside from cleaning them up when I finally have some spare time, I want to work out if there’s some kind of bug hotel set up I can make with some of them – but one that hopefully isn’t just a haven for slugs.

It’s occurred to me that the area around the bottom of the elder and onto the semi-wanted mint part would also be a good place to have a multi-layer bug hotel.

Bed 11 is now complete for winter. It’s been fully edged with cardboard, lined and then give a fat layer of manure. The pile of my own compost in the bed has been spread on top as the leaf mould layer. I should have remembered hügel sticks, but didn’t think of it until too late.

There was half a bag of manure left over, so that’s been put onto Bed 5. That’s already reached its compost level, but it’s very deep, so the manure’s gone on next and I’ll add more manure and compost as we go. It’s a deep bed, which is good because that’s where I’m planning to try parsnips there.

Bed 9 has a new cover now, as the old one no longer fits. It’s been open for a week, but nothing had been disturbed in the leaf mould level. I had to tread on it a few times and it’s quite soft and spongey, so should settle down a good bit further, especially with the compost on top.

I walked around the plot a little after lunch and found the very first bulb poking up. This should be one of the narcissus bulbs.

I was going to leave Bed 6 until spring, but the ground is dry enough that I thought I’d make a start on it. I’ve left the newspaper in place and cut away the edge grass. Half is now lined and edged and I’ll aim to do the rest tomorrow. As this is a wet bed in winter, I must try and remember to hügel stick this one in case it helps to hold any of the water.

Back to Bed 9 and the first job was to lay the cardboard. It was a pretty good fit and I covered the cracks with newspaper. The poppy by the post is being left to take its chance. 3 sacks of manure went into this bed to make a reasonable layer. The bags are all reliable quality so far.

We added a thin layer of leaf mould on top. There is by no means enough for all the beds as I had originally planned, so I’m being a little more circumspect with it now. We’ve emptied the last bit into a plastic sack for easy access. The bottom of it is particularly good stuff. We’ve refilled the bin with a sack or two of the 2021 leaves. I should have mowed them first, but never got around to it. Must do that this year.

The new suet coconut was ridiculously diminished when I came back after lunch. Maybe the crows had been in, but a tit had been on it when we left in the morning and I saw the robin and a great tit on it after lunch. I was surrounded by birds: the robins, a blackbird, the tit, a goldfinch…

I saw the robins on the fenceposts across the plot, with one doing a courtship dance of bobbing, head up and tail up. I’ve read that during courtship the female is allowed into the male’s territory, which suggests that the bold one is the male.

Bed 9 has grown and so is being left open until we cut new plastic. I was a little concerned that the birds would immediately kick my leaf mould around, but it looks like the cardboard base perhaps deters them from being too vigorous.

I made a big start on Bed 11, edging more than half with cardboard and evening out the earth. I’ve bagged up lots more clay, taking it from the compost heap. There’s more to go, but I have nowhere easy to put it now. I’ll use this homemade compost as at least some of the leaf mould layer. I’ll deal with the other end of the bed when this first part is done.

Bed 9 was my focus this morning and I turned the clay-ridden, weedy bed into a weed-free, level one. I did cardboard edging all the way round, which has taken care of gap which will get more wood in the spring.

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.

We did lots of logistics today and got all the scavenged cardboard down to the shed, along with my new plastic tiles for avoiding the mud, a bucket of hügel sticks, and the bags of leaves from Normandy. Bad road signage and a closed road included, we also picked up 3 bags of compost (still frozen!) and 4 bags of manure from the garden centre.

I pulled back the plastic on Bed 1 and scattered hügel sticks across the wet cardboard. I’m not 100% sold on them, but I think I’ll stick with it (ha ha) for the remainder. I was concerned about the depth of the beds, having put cardboard down, so further reading assures me that it’s a temporary layer. It’ll decompose in time and be soft enough for roots to grow straight through.

The manure turned out to be absolutely perfect stuff (and only frozen in the middle!). It’s fine, rotted chippings and feels like the perfect base layer for the beds before I add leaf mould and compost. It was also discounted, so I need to get lots more!

I put 4 bags onto Bed 1, which I think will do for now. Then leaf mould and compost, with maybe more compost in the spring. The moment I walked away, the two robins turned up to see what was happening. I’ve covered it up again now, so I’m not taken by surprise by any mean weather elements.

The water has receded somewhat after some clear days (but loads of rain yesterday), but it’s still pretty wet, particularly around the shed. We levelled Bed 6 (the worms had made an aerated raised section in the middle) and laid a thick layer of newspaper down and then put the plastic back. That’s now done for spring, when the grass edges will be cut back, cardboard edges and base added. Then sticks, manure, leaves and compost.

Bed 2 has also had more newspaper added to it, and the very end is now covered too. The original newspaper was sopping wet, so it’ll be interesting to see what survives until spring. At that point, I’ll uncover it all and see what weeds remain.

Bed 5 has now been put away for winter. A layer of leaf mould has been taken from the bin, then compost on top. In the spring I’ll add more manure and compost to bring up the level. For now, it’s covered in plastic and done.

We’ve covered the whole of Bed 1 with an overlapping layer of cardboard. The cardboard edging will be done later – but I’m out of cardboard now! Meanwhile, the plastic is back on.

My two robins were back today, having been AWOL for a few visits. One is still braver than the other and is the one who is happy to take mealworms from in front of the shed, while the other one sits up on the fence.

I put all my energy into the smallest bed, Bed 5, in order to try out the full process. I removed the huge piles of clay and the weeds. The poppy that was somehow still alive has been moved to Bed 3 – somehow I managed to avoid the bulbs. I edged the inside of the frame with cardboard and filled the post holes that were somewhat cavernous. As I dropped balls of clay and soil down there, I could hear them hitting water.

The hard work was dragging a third of the soil back at a time and laying cardboard before re-covering it. I’m not entirely sure if I’m going to do this for all the beds; maybe for some I’ll do the more traditional thing of simply putting cardboard down on top of what’s there. But I’ve done some good work on my soil.

The next thing will be leaves and compost; this one isn’t big enough to get hügel sticks as well. Then it’ll be covered in its plastic until spring.

The standing water had receded, but the ground is still very wet down at the plot. Since time is passing, but the weather means that I can’t do proper work down there, my priority is (also) at least keeping the progress I’ve made. So I cleared the clay and few weeds from Bed 1 and managed to cover it on my own (hurray for it being a single sheet.)

I managed to move the big verbena and stick it in among the verbenas in the border.

I also made a bucketful of improvement to the remaining unweeded section of the left border and pulled up long grass and clumps of grass and cress. Although it still doesn’t look great, it’s a huge improvement.

I finished edging the outside of the fence with the wooden edging. I’m not sure how effective it’ll be, but it’s worth a go at reducing the impact of the grass from outside. Still not sure what to do about all the grass from the neighbouring plot.