Sunday 19 October 2008

Le Potager

Today dawned fine so I had an urge to start work on the potager which M Benazet has very kindly given us permission to create on the land below his house. The total area that we can use is probably around 50m2 and is part of the land that I cleared with the scythe earlier in the year and which we have been keeping down with the mower over the summer. It is currently made up of grassy tussocks, nettles and weeds. If we had a rotavator we could get it turned over very quickly, but we don't and besides, they didn't have such machinery in days gone by. So this morning I set to with the fork and spade. It quickly became apparent from the presence of worms that the soil is of very good quality and may even have been used as a potager at some point in the past. Andy joined me after lunch and eventually we were able to clear around 20m2 of land.It needs a bit more digging through before I can plant anything and we also need to consider what form of fencing to erect to protect our growing produce from deer, wild boar, goats, horses and whatever other wildlife may take a fancy to it! But it's good to have finally made a start on the project.

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