It's ironic that we spent the entire growing season bemoaning the fact that we needed rain but now we are in a race to get the allotment ready for winter before the ground becomes too wet to work on. We like to get beds cleared and dug over so that we are in a good position to start planting in spring rather than, as sometimes happens, having to wait for beds to be prepared.
The ground is now fairly damp on the surface but, in some beds, the ground is hard and dry once you dig down to a spade's depth. In the photo below you can see that, when the bed was dug, the soil that was turned over was still very dry. The hard lumps will need to be left open to the elements in the hope that any rain and frosts will break them down.
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