Preparing seed beds

It's been bitterly cold this last week, that nagging easterly wind has been sending me wapppy. It's not quite so bad today and the forecast's showing it warming up next week so time to crack on and get sowing; the weeds are growing well which means the soil should be warm enough.

I don't try and prepare the whole plot at once, but do it as I go along with each sowing. Unless the weeds are seeding they aren't doing any harm, on the contrary they protect the soil from those drying winds and help retain moisture water in the soil.

The soil was turned over last autumn and had compost dug into it. This particular piece of ground is where I grew my potatoes last year, so following the potatoes-legumes-brassicas-roots rotation, this is where I'll now be sowing my early peas.

This is how it looks now:


And this is how it looks after I've taken out the weeds with a border fork and leveled it with a rake, leaving a nice crumbly tilth: