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Sandpits for adults
Saturday, 2 April 2011 17:28A couple of weekends ago I decided to cut down the two bushes at the front of my garden since I never liked one of them, and the other was more-or-less dead since I tried to cut it back last year, and the snow this winter had finished it off.
Here's what they looked like a year ago; the left one hasn't changed much, and imagine the right one without any green on it.
My neighbour, who happened to be doing some work outside at the time, lent me a saw to get through the thickest branches, which was much appreciated, and after an hour or so I'd cut both back down to near ground level. The picture to the right shows what it looked like; the two stumps are to the left and right of the pots I put in there (remove .small from the URL for full size if you're particularly interested).
Last weekend I dug up the stumps and roots of both bushes. That was harder than I expected, and I ended up spending several hours on both days on that. Digging up all that soil around the base made me realise that gardening is basically sandpits for adults -- the fun bits, anyway. Here's how it looked afterwards, complete with the two uprooted stumps (one on the garden bed, the other on the patio at the bottom of the frame):
This last week I've been pondering on what to do with the newly created space. I've planted carrots on the area I used for beans and onions last year, and I decided to use this new area largely to plant more vegetables too. Today I've been out preparing the soil for seeds, which has been quite involved since the two bushes have put down a lot of leaves and twigs, which needed to be cleared. That's taken me about four hours this afternoon.
Here's how it looks now. I've created four areas, separated with some wooden stick and logs I've had lying around under the bushes since I moved in.
In the leftmost area I'm going to plant some forget-me-nots, the only non-edible contribution; I've started them off in an improvised seed tray this weekend and apparently they'll be ready to replant in a few months. In the top area I'm going to plant some nasturtiums; I've accidentally ordered a climbing type from Suttons so I'll have to improvise something for them to grab onto once they're planted. That'll have the nice side-effect of shielding the rest of the garden from the pathway, I hope. In the rightmost area I've planted a line of rosemary bush seeds, since rosemary is a great herb that I don't use enough of in my cooking.
In the centre area, I'm going to grow broccoli and broad beans. The area that's got chicken wire over it hosts three lines of planted broccoli seeds, and I'm waiting for Suttons to deliver the broad bean seeds, which will fill up the rest of the area.
My main worry, assuming any of these seeds actually germinate, is that the ground-elder (aka goutweed, aka BASTARD GOUTWEED) I spent digging up and covering up with weed-proof mesh a few years ago will creep into the new area. I removed a couple of leaves from the house-side flower bed earlier; this stuff just never gives up.
When I cleared it up in 2009/10, I think it'd only spread to the paved area, but as you can see, it got pretty close to the new area, and I'm not sure the wooden mini-fencing will have kept its rhizomes out. At any rate, I didn't find any when I was digging it over this afternoon, so fingers crossed.
Here's what they looked like a year ago; the left one hasn't changed much, and imagine the right one without any green on it.
My neighbour, who happened to be doing some work outside at the time, lent me a saw to get through the thickest branches, which was much appreciated, and after an hour or so I'd cut both back down to near ground level. The picture to the right shows what it looked like; the two stumps are to the left and right of the pots I put in there (remove .small from the URL for full size if you're particularly interested).
Last weekend I dug up the stumps and roots of both bushes. That was harder than I expected, and I ended up spending several hours on both days on that. Digging up all that soil around the base made me realise that gardening is basically sandpits for adults -- the fun bits, anyway. Here's how it looked afterwards, complete with the two uprooted stumps (one on the garden bed, the other on the patio at the bottom of the frame):
This last week I've been pondering on what to do with the newly created space. I've planted carrots on the area I used for beans and onions last year, and I decided to use this new area largely to plant more vegetables too. Today I've been out preparing the soil for seeds, which has been quite involved since the two bushes have put down a lot of leaves and twigs, which needed to be cleared. That's taken me about four hours this afternoon.
Here's how it looks now. I've created four areas, separated with some wooden stick and logs I've had lying around under the bushes since I moved in.
In the leftmost area I'm going to plant some forget-me-nots, the only non-edible contribution; I've started them off in an improvised seed tray this weekend and apparently they'll be ready to replant in a few months. In the top area I'm going to plant some nasturtiums; I've accidentally ordered a climbing type from Suttons so I'll have to improvise something for them to grab onto once they're planted. That'll have the nice side-effect of shielding the rest of the garden from the pathway, I hope. In the rightmost area I've planted a line of rosemary bush seeds, since rosemary is a great herb that I don't use enough of in my cooking.
In the centre area, I'm going to grow broccoli and broad beans. The area that's got chicken wire over it hosts three lines of planted broccoli seeds, and I'm waiting for Suttons to deliver the broad bean seeds, which will fill up the rest of the area.
My main worry, assuming any of these seeds actually germinate, is that the ground-elder (aka goutweed, aka BASTARD GOUTWEED) I spent digging up and covering up with weed-proof mesh a few years ago will creep into the new area. I removed a couple of leaves from the house-side flower bed earlier; this stuff just never gives up.
When I cleared it up in 2009/10, I think it'd only spread to the paved area, but as you can see, it got pretty close to the new area, and I'm not sure the wooden mini-fencing will have kept its rhizomes out. At any rate, I didn't find any when I was digging it over this afternoon, so fingers crossed.
