6 down: 219 to go

I cleared the weeds from about 6 square metres of ground today; only 219 to go. About 5 of the 6 are already planted with a few wildlife friendly shrubs and herbs. I managed to clear the weeds leaving behind most of the self seeded fennel for the hoverflies and birds. The other square metre is just in open ground. The rain has definitely softened the land and it is getting easier to get to the roots.

Harvested some more blackberries and ate them on the job. I try not to think of what may be inside them and one in particular tasted a little rich in protein! My Grandma would be turning in her grave if she knew. When I was about ten years old she gave me a graphic lesson in the grubs that sometimes live inside the fruit. She filled a sink with salt water and tipped in some blackberries and we watched and waited. Little white grubs started to crawl out from the middle. After about half an hour she rinsed the fruit and we ate it. I was under strict instructions never to eat blackberries straight from the plant again! I never did do as I was told though, they taste too good not to just eat.

Also harvested a few hazelnuts, last time I was there they were very much still on the bush, unripe, and out of reach. Today they were mostly on the ground and mostly already eaten by the wildlife. I suspect squirrels and mice. The Hazel overhangs from the corner of the garden by 7 metres, the lowest branches curve over about 6 or 7 feet off the ground, it’s massive. Once the leaves fall it will be coppiced so that it is more manageable and doesn’t take up so much room.

Brought back more hawthorn berries too.

I must remember to take the camera with me next time!

Motivation boost

Last night made some Damson Gin from the tree at home. A reminder of what will be possible when the plot is growing and productive. Great for the motivation!

Slow Going

Last Friday I took another car load of rubbish to the tip. This time it was mainly rubble and broken concrete blocks.  I also tried digging at various places around the plot. The rain we have had seems to have softened the ground a little. There are places that it will be relatively easy to clear but places that the ground is still very hard and tangled with roots. I really want to get on with the job and see more creative progress, as opposed to cutting things down. 

Original 9 year old scribble on scrap paper

I designed a layout (if it could be called a design) for the garden 9 years ago but apart from laying a few slabs near to the house, levelling a small circle for a bit of grass (can’t really call it a lawn) and putting down some gravel, that was it.





The plot was then left to someone else to maintain. I took over again two years ago.




Eighteen months ago I separated the plot from the house with a fence, leaving a small area of gravelled garden for the house. For the next seven months, other priorities took over and it was left to its own devices.  Extreme bad weather followed; then last spring I started on the job with a vengeance.  Such a warm dry summer has slowed progress and impatience is starting to set in.

The slowing down has had some advantages. I have accumulated lots of plants, most of them sown as seeds but some divisions and cuttings of plants from the garden at home and a couple of bought in plants. I’m getting good at reviving plants from the ‘dead and dying’ counter at the local DIY shed and garden centres. There they only cost from a few pence to about £4 or £5, sometimes for large plants that would’ve cost £££s earlier in the season and plenty of times they contain more than one plant squashed into a pot. I once got a dying alpine strawberry plant for £1 it turned out when prised apart to have 45 plants in one small pot, no wonder it looked like it was dying! They have been multiplying ever since; needless to say alpine strawberries are on the list of plants just ready to plant out when the ground is cleared. I am hoping they make good ground cover.

Another advantage of the slow down is that I have gained a real sense of the contours of the plot. I wouldn’t have said it sloped much, but it is on the side of a hill and looks as if sometime in the past there has been an attempt to terrace the ground. Walking about the plot has shown natural paths, the obvious lines that walking around has revealed. The plan will now be modified to take this into account, something I couldn’t have done on a faster time scale.  

It’s early in the year to have collected hawthorn berries today, but they are falling from the trees naturally. I will scarify them and hope that enough of them germinate to plant a hedge along the plot edge. The hope is that a hedge can begin to establish before the rickety fence finally falls down. The plan is to plant the seeds but also to put in some hardwood cuttings too.

The bottom end of the plot can’t yet be planted. As soon as the leaves have fallen from the trees they need radical surgery and need space for the branches to come down. Just one hazel plant has branches that overhand by seven metres. The rest are bigger. A mix of coppicing and pollarding the trees should revive them and provide plenty of wood for use in the garden and a fire at home.

P.S. This post originally started with the word Today. It has taken me three days to work out how to post a picture with a label! Must do it a bit more often until I remember how.