July was a pretty awful month, weather-wise, and I’ll come to that soon. But from here, on a gloomy, rainy day in early August, when you’ve not had more than a day of sunshine for weeks, the pleasantries of March and April of this year seem a long time ago.
But while the buds were coming out, we were ripping off the ground cover and contemplating raised beds – not so much the benefits, but more how much wood and soil we’d need to actually make it happen.
All in all, this was a much better starting point that last year.
We DID decide on a bedding system, but this has been worked out by just leaving covered gaps between the “bed” areas, and having an unwritten rule not to walk on the beds. I shall talk later about how this has been a huge success!
We…I say “we”, I mean “my lovely wife”…planned much better this year too, and we’d put some garlic in the herb beds while it was still very cold (and it was very cold for a long time back in February!).
Those little bulbs were already shooting, and we were expectantly digging and planting. The rotations were done, new beds were being cleared of weeds and both under cover and outdoors, seeds, tubers, and sets were sending their first shoots up to look for the sun.