Michelle's husband, Mike, actually built this bed last year, but nothing was planted in it, so along with the heavy weeding, it needed a little more attention than the others. Here's a before & after:
This picture was taken right after I finished uprooting the weeds, but unbeknownst to me, more work still had to be done before the bed was ready for planting. I actually accomplished this relatively quickly and was proud to show Michelle my progress when she came out that afternoon, only for her to tell me "oh, did I not tell you to sift through the soil and put all the rocks into a pile?" Well, no.
So that was another hour or two of work, stomping the big fork deep into the ground, upturning the soil, locating the rocks (which are plentiful in the Catskills), throwing them into a pile, and discovering that I really didn't pull all of the weeds up from their roots. Still lots of roots remained, so I spent the rest of the late afternoon getting all of them out and aerating the soil so that the darker, richer, wetter soil underneath could mix with the dry, rocky topsoil.
While doing this, I discovered a layer of wet hay about 6 inches deep and didn't know what the point of this was. I later found out it was a part of the compost, and that I should leave it there. I didn't inquire more, but perhaps it's also a weed management technique - kind of like mulching, but....underground? I'm not sure. Need to investigate this.
Well voila! A bed prepared. Time to plant!
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