Preparing Raised Beds for Rhubarb Division

English | 日本語

 Good morning.

Today, with sunny weather for the first time in a while, I’ll be building raised beds for rhubarb division. The forecast calls for temperatures rising from 19 to 25℃, so it’s important to stay hydrated and take frequent breaks.

Lately, I’ve mostly been harvesting, so I’m curious to see how my stamina holds up for this kind of work.

Vegetable garden before adding the raised beds

This time, I’ll be building raised beds in the upper sections of CW and RL. This area previously contained broccoli that was never harvested and mustard greens that had grown far too large.

Building the raised beds

Even in the pleasant early morning, this is physically demanding work, and it has been a while since I’ve done this much manual labor. This process is called soil turning. By turning the upper and lower layers of soil and removing weeds, I’m preparing the ideal growing environment for rhubarb. Pulling out the weed roots is more challenging than I expected, but it’s surprisingly enjoyable. The soil is in excellent condition.

Building the raised beds (soil turning)

Next, I spread chicken manure, the fertilizer I always use for growing rhubarb. Since chicken manure is an organic fertilizer, I can use it with confidence. This time, I applied one bag (15kg). It’s certainly a generous amount.

Applying chicken manure

Since the soil has just been turned, the weed roots are still alive. I plan to cover the bed with clear plastic for soil solarization. I’m hoping this will raise the soil temperature and help suppress weeds, diseases, and insect pests (although black plastic is normally used for this purpose).

To keep the plastic from being blown away by strong winds, I secured it with large rocks uncovered during today’s work.

I’m not sure why, but this is my favorite part of the job (maybe because it means the work is almost finished).

Covering the bed with clear plastic

I had planned to build raised beds in the lower sections of CW and RL as well (the area in the back of the photo), but due to time constraints, I'll save that work for another day. For today, only the upper section has been completed.

After 2 to 3 days under the plastic, the raised bed will be ready for transplanting rhubarb.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how the soil turns out and to transplanting the rhubarb.

Completed raised beds

Now it's time to wait.

That's all for today!