Planning Ahead

After some online searching my latest pair of Doc Martens arrived this week, I tend to start the treasure hunt some time before I think my current shoes are past it.

The first in line are my current gardening shoes, they are probably eight years old, they are still comfy and do a great job, the next are my current shoes that walk, on average, about 8,000 paces a day and have done for two and a half years now.

The new arrivals, well, they are magnificent, the original UK version, very heavy full grain leather with a ton of life in them.

They will be in storage now until they are needed.

The cycle continues

If you travel back in the blog to May 2018 you will see this familiar compost heap, and a year on it is time for an update on the progress of what was a large patch of grass to the side of the house, which happily is well on it's way to being expunged.

Photo one shows new weeds and grass/sod and kitchen scraps on the right hand side, we had removed all the good soil from that side from 2018 (you'll see some of it in photo four) and today I removed the back left quadrant of soil and deposited it on turned over grass and a cardboard layer for a bed close to the road (photo two and three).

There is only a quarter of our 2018 soil left.

The first bed you see, planted and mulched, measures about 5' x 4' and the new one is closer to 7' x 4' and soil depth is about 8" and I expect our last bit of soil will stretch another 5'

Photo four shows the developing shrub garden, what was once mostly grass is now evolving into something lovely.

Back to photo one, the full side is now covered with a tarp, to keep moisture in and for the good old rot to begin, in a weeks time, the left hand side will be emptied of soil, to be filled with all those garden and household scraps, to make excellent (and free) soil for the 2020 season.