Putting the rye to bed...

Woke up to quite abit of sunshine this morning so my plans to get some work done in the vegetable garden were favoured upon. Powered by the bacon and egg (free range of our own hens of course) sandwich I had for breakfast I set to work on one of the beds which had a crop of grazing rye growing in it.

Obviously, as i'm operating a no-dig approach this year I cannot simply dig the rye in. So to that end, I began by cutting it down to ground level with a pair of shears:

I then put a layer of shredded paper and old paper sacks that we buy the poultry food in:

Then finally I top it all off with spent hops and garden compost. The idea is to put as much organic matter on the cut rye as possible because it regrows very quickly. By blocking out the light it should rot down nicely and be incorporated into the soil.

 

It's best to get this done now as, once the rye is cut, it takes a good two months before you can plant on that ground. Well this bed is destined for brassicas which shan't be planted out until the end of March/beginning of April so we're easy on.

Just a quick thing- signs its mild for the time of the year- found this guy basking by the compost heaps when I get there:

Wont be long before we start to see frogspawn in the ponds? A sure sign that spring is only round the corner!