With the plan to use one of our, now three plots, as a low maintenance ‘fruit plot’. I had been waiting for the best time to relocate our rhubarb plants from their current position on our first original plot to this new space dedicated just to fruit. It also gives me a chance to cover a larger are with a crop that we eat a lot of. Apparently rhubarb is actually a veg but hey, we’re making up the rules as we go along!

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On digging up the crowns now that they have died back, I managed to split them up to make around eight good plants (basically by hacking at them with a spade). I’m not sure if there’s an exact science to this but I have done it before and it seemed to work quite well, fingers crossed this luck will stick with me.

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Having trundled them down to the fruit plot several times with a wheelbarrow full of rhizomes I popped them into their new spots, around 6 inches deep, leaving them just under the surface, marking them with old canes and poles.

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In further embracement of the no dig / lasagne method, I then spread the entire contents of one of the compost beds over the area. Much of the material was fairly new to the heap, but with not needing to dig or plant the ground in the spring now that the rhubarb was under there, I figured it would act as a good mulch whilst it was rotting and the woody material could take all the time it needed. If the rhubarb struggles to make its way through, I have the markers to create a few little clearings if need be.

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Fingers crossed for happy rhubarb in 2018!

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