A dried up river bed!

Thursday 19th February

When I arrived in lovely sunshine today, much of the plot looked like a dried up river bed. Which of course it is. Look closely at the photo and you'll see how the floods have smoothed and flattened the soil out. Only the small border near the shed has escaped the effects of the flood waters. I took down my remaining blueberry plants for planting in the raised bed, as I wasn't sure just how much other work I would be able to do. There are a number of different varieties whch I'm told are good for pollination. If you look towards the back of the plot you can see the river is still quite high and the 'hollow' still has a little water remaining at the bottom. Next job was to plant the red cabbage I'd bought late last Autumn and which were still in their polystyrene tray. I just needed to rake over the top of the soil - still very damp underneath - before planting. I retrieved the protective cloche which had floated away in the floods, attached some some netting and placed it over the plants to keep out the rabbits. I saw Bernie today - he said he'd taken some pictures of my flooded plot - just in case I hadn't been down to see it. He thought we ought to get a reduction in our rent, as our plots suffer from being so close to the river. I agreed and he said he'd raise it with the person who collects the rent. He invited me to come along to next week's gardening club talk about helpful insects.
I tried digging over a patch of earth on the other side, where no digging has been done for a long time. It was impossible to pull out the weeds - mostly bindweed roots, as the soil was so heavy, so I just turned the soil over. I'll have to attack the weeds later. This week the weather has felt like Spring, with temperatures of 12 degrees some days. I'll have to hope for another frost before the Spring arrives, to break up the soil.