Clearing out a raised bed at the community allotment and learning about gardening tools

The practical part of Saturday's gardening course involved clearing out a raised bed in the community allotment.

The allotment was largely full of mare's tail, so called because it looks a bit like a mare's tail.

Mare's tail

This weed is very hard to get rid of it and we definitely didn't manage to get all the roots out, but we did clear everything that was on the surface and take a lot of root with us. Our teacher said that if we kept cutting the mare's tail off below the surface every time it appeared, eventually it wouldn't come back any more, as plants need light to grow, and if we keep cutting it off below the surface eventually the roots won't have enough energy to come back.

We did most of the work with garden forks. Tips for using these included:

• use a foot (shod in sensible shoes or boots, not sandals) to help drive the fork into the soil, 
• gently waggle the fork back and forth with your foot on it when the fork won't go in as far as you want rather than repeatedly stomping on the fork to try and drive it further in,
• if you can't lift a piece of earth or plant out by inserting your fork in at one location, take it out and keep inserting your fork and waggling all round the thing you're trying to get out; this loosens it and makes it easier to get out,
• use your fork flat to bash sods of earth so they break up into smaller pieces, and 
• use your fork like a rake to even out and smooth the soil. 

I'm pleased to report I'd  been doing all of those in my garden already, but only because those were the things I needed to happen to the soil and that seemed the most practical way of getting there with the limited tools I had. It was nice to know I'd arrived at the right solution by trial and error.

But our weed clearing wasn't limited to forks, we also got to try out a couple of implements I've only ever seen on TV before.

The one that looks like an ice pick is actually called a mattock. It looked way too heavy for my delicate back, but seemed pretty effective at getting through tough soil and weeds when I watched other people using it. The trick was not to swing it above waist height and then to let it swing down into the ground, so its weight was do most of the work.
The one that looks like a spade bent to a horrible angle is actually meant to be like that and is called a trenching hoe. It's what people in other countries use for the sort of clearing work we were doing with forks. It was highly effective. I reckon it would have been quicker, but more intensive work than the fork. It was also potentially less versatile, as the fork seemed handier for breaking up sods of earth and raking the surface even.

Our teacher did say though, that however versatile the fork is, it's also worth having a rake, as you just can't get soil nearly as even with a fork as you can with a rake. Look how lovely and even you can get it with a rake: