I'm sure that at some point, this plot will ease up on the hard work and start to deliver me some return. I'm not complaining, I love the physical aspect of it; being a desk bound office worker I find it easy to put on a few pounds and much tougher to shift it. I also stare longingly out of the window on fair days, pining for an opportunity to enjoy some warm sun and a little breeze rather than the stuffy suffocating air of an office attached to a warehouse.
For the moment, I'm resigned to tough physical labour, and it seems pretty endless right now!
Case in point; the gigantic Rhubarb crown which decided to appear precisely where my compost bin needs to be, just as I was setting it up. Now, I don't even eat rhubarb, but my good friend Dave does, and Dave has been the saviour of some of my finest Bonsai, housing and watering them for me in the absence of me having a garden - so it was the least I could do to give it a home where he could tend it. I've already offered him a section of the plot for his runner beans, so a little more for rhubarb wouldn't hurt at all.
Here's the undug crown. Innocuous looking wouldn't you say?
Me too, until I dug the damned thing out! It took me 40 minutes to get under it, to a depth of around 2 ft, it was oval and approx. 3ft long. It left a gigantic hole which I spent ages trying to fill in
I then spent around 20 minutes grunting and cursing as it was too heavy to lift, so I couldn't get it into the wheelbarrow, I tried dragging it, pushing it and generally failed miserably. I eventually managed to get it onto a piece of cardboard and dragged it across the plot to the corner which I had prepared earlier with a layer of well rotted manure(there's plenty of that to go around) and had dug what I thought was a big enough hole. Obviously that wasn't going to cut it! My friend likes to force his rhubarb, and luckily for him I had a few spare composting bins knocking about which will do the job perfectly.... so I cut the rhubarb crown straight down the centre and planted both, firmly into two holes.
I mulched the earth around the outside, and originally intended to cover this with more manure and compost. However, if you are eagle eyed you will spot that my barrow contains lots of couch grass which I was taking down to the green bins before I could get more manure/compost.
While I was down there I noticed that there was just enough woodchip left in the communal pile to cover the recently laid cardboard and rhubarb patch - so that's what I did! It's just the job, and provides a neat and attractive front corner to the plot.
Generally speaking I think that Rhubarb should normally be divided in late April/early May but I had no choice in this instance as I need to get things moving on my plot. Rhubarb is pretty resilient, so I'd be amazed if it didn't spring back.
Finally I'd managed to get my composting area cleared!
More soon....
Dean
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