But these last few days it's thawed out some. The area where I'd spread plastic over section 14 is thawed. Yesterday I did some more digging in that area, and I now have space for three 40' rows, each 3' wide, all more or less weeded out of witch grass. I'm sure there will still be some sprouts of it, but they should be small enough that I can pull them without dislodging all the garlic I'm about to plant.
On the northeast corner of this dug area I could do a little more to make it a rectangle. The swath got wider as I worked downhill. And on the southwest corner there's a spot where the plastic was held down by that low wheeled weeding platform with all the poultrynet piled up on it and it didn't thaw as well. I could go deeper there to. But overall, I'm happy to have this much ready.
I tried two methods to do all this digging. The first was to go along across the swath, 10' wide, with a spading fork. I'd loosen a fork full, smash it as I moved it a few feet, and then bend down and pick out the rhizomes. This was a lot of bending. I got about half of the area done that way, little by little, with plenty of encouragement from the chickens. (Worms are apparently delicious.)
The second method was to use my Glaser 3-tine cultivator. This is a great tool. Most 3-tine cultivators are about the size of your hand, and work about as well. This one is about 8" wide, which means that there's plenty of room for soil to pass between the tines. It's not a rake. But rhizomes are long and it will catch them and pull them to the surface. The downside is that at $40, it cost me significantly more than almost any other non-motorized garden tool I've ever had. It gave me some worry when it disappeared last year too. I found it hiding along with some debris stacked near the fence on the north end of section 4 a few weeks ago. The handle is a bit dry-rotted now because of that. But the handle is more or less a heavy broom handle with a conical end. I can make one out of some convenient scrap easily enough.
Technique with the 3-tine cultivator was to work across the swath in about 2' strokes, digging down as far as the tines will reach, and in the process, moving the soil a little. I know I said it isn't a rake, but in scratching around, I did rake the soil down a bit, and raked it up onto soil that had already been done, so I effectively tilled down about 10" this way. I did this in a wide footed stance, bent low, pulling diagonally toward me. This may not sound ergonomic, but because I stayed bent over, I think it was better than the constant up and down I was getting with the fork. And the chickens still approved.
As I got to the lower end, toward the raspberries, I found I was pulling out not just rhizomes, but baseball sized rocks. These have never been noticeable before, which means I must be digging slightly deeper than in the past. When I first started in this garden ten years ago, there was a very clear transition between the brown, oxygenated surface soil, and the grey, anoxic, dense clay that lay underneath. I'm not seeing that boundary now. Section 14, being just inside the gate, is one of the best amended areas of the garden. I can only hope to get the rest this well done, although sections 4, 7, 10, and 11 aren't so bad either. 12 and 13 should probably be my focus for improvement at this point, but I digress.
After I finished the final part of my swath in section 14, I walked around with the spading fork and did some experimental digging. In most places, I could dig down about 4" and then hit a frost layer. The current forecast is for well above normal seasonal temperatures. The long range graph shows two nights in the next two weeks where the temperature drops below freezing. This is absurd, but I'll go with it. We will be thawed in no time.
Unharvested onions from last year in section 7 are sprouting, and I'd like to try to get a seed crop from them to start next years onions with this fall. Last year I hunted around to all of the likely suspects and finally found onion sets at Feed & Seed about a month after I felt like it was a good idea to get them planted. Four Season Farm across town does fall planting and overwinters them under cover, resulting in a very early harvest. That'd be nice.
I also need to wear gloves for some of this kind of work. I didn't notice the blister at the base of my left middle finger yesterday until it was torn off. This morning I dosed it with St.John's Wort Oil and it feels okay, but I'd rather be building callouses.
I took the acetaminophen/ibuprofen mix last night, and I feel surprisingly good this morning. I'd better do my core strength exercises now though.
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