Weeded!

Major battle with weeds today. Been managing to keep on top of the situation in the raised beds but the surrounding paths and a big bed made just of tyres were fast turning into a jungle... not any more!!! Well, except for that big nettle you can see top left. It's days are numbered.

The bed in the pic was filled to the top edge of the wood border last year but as you can see it has now dropped to almost ground level. Two years ago it was dug to about a metre deep (by our neighbour's JCB) and then filled to the top with farmyard manure. Then topped of with soil. Over the past 2 years it has gradually sunk as the manure rotted further. We topped it up after last years crop but then we planted garlic and onion sets over winter so we haven't been able to top it up since. We will dump a new load of manure to fill it up once we harvested everything in it.

The Autumn planted onion sets didn't survive our winter but the ones I planted in Spring are doing fine. Interplanted between the onions, shallots and garlic are carrots. This should help confuse any carrot root fly. I also save up used coffee grounds and put these around the base of the carrot tops, this seems to help as we didn't have any damage at all last year. A cafe in Kirkwall were giving away their used grounds to anyone who wanted them for compost, I picked up a bag whenever I passed by. Must see if they are still doing it.