Digging the plot.

After spraying some Round Up on the paddock to clear the grass the next step was to hire a rotary hoe and dig up two plots.  The cost of the rotary hoe was $86 for two hours.  There were some rather large stones in the soil and these did not agree with the rotary hoe.  With no experience of using this machine before, I was unsure whether to spend a long time getting to the proper depth before moving on or do multiple runs taking off a bit more each time.  In the end I decided to try both strategies, one on each plot.

 It was quite hard to keep the digger going straight as the garden is on a bit of a slope.  The machine went well for a while and then started to die.  It took me a while to work out that the choke was slowly coming out and so it would start to choke the engine.  For a change it was good to have a hire machine that was easy to start.

The machine definitely broke the soil up into fine particles.  It was hard to keep a constant depth and some plants may find it hard to get a deep root system.  However I do plan to build the beds up with the fish compost I have already.  I think I might get another cubic metre as I have heard good things about it from other gardeners and I really do want the plants to have a good chance of growing.

Here are the finished beds.  I had planned on making them a little wider but this will do for the time being.  I can always widen them later.  My next step is to get my spade and make sure the edges are a little clearer.   I have bought two 8kg bags of gypsum  and I will spread this on the soil to help reduce the effect of the clay content.