Mulch, mulch, more mulch and THE SEPTEMBER LIST
Hello Friends!
I've done a VERY GOOD THING this week. It's not sexy or instagrammy or worthy of much writing but it has given me more satisfaction than most of the stuff I've done this year. It is (as ye olde friends here will probably have guessed) the mulching of my back border. This border did fantastically well in its first year, when it was planted up with asters and echinaceas which put on the most delicious show and then decided they couldn't be bothered any more. The reason has always been less than fabulous soil; I was in such a hurry to plant it that I let my contractors get away with under-filling it in the first instance. The idea was to take everything out in the spring of the second year and begin again with extra compost, but life got in the way and here we are, five, six years down the line with a bed full of forget-me-nots and not very much else. The soil comes a good 25cm below the brick edge of the bed...indeed you can see the concrete base for the bricks quite clearly in some places. This year I have been growing climbing beans in the bed, which have actually done remarkably well considering the general paucity of the situation, but I have regularly to water the two small hydrangea paniculata I planted there last autumn, and THAT, my friends, is what you call UNSUSTAINABLE!
What's needed of course, is a thick duvet of new soil, bringing it up to the level it's meant to be, and at the same time guarding against moisture loss. It's a not insignificant job, considering the size of the area, the number of weeds, and the fact that my left ankle is being an utter bastard, rendering me pretty useless when carrying heavy loads. I could (and probably should) get somebody to come and do this for me. It would probably cost £250 - £250 is the going rate for pretty much anything in London...nothing is under £250...NOTHING - but I'm hooked on the dark soil/weed free/new beginnings/Septembuary drug and you know what, I LOVE WEEDING, so I'm doing it myself. Here is how I do it, in five minutes a day
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday
1. Kneeler down, podcast on, widger in hand.
2. I weed as far as I can reach in every direction. I find bindweed, chickweed, dandelions and forget-me-nots. I take everything out except for some of the forget-me-nots and then...
3. I water everything thoroughly. The soil is really dry and mulching dry soil only prevents rain from penetrating it.
4. Once watered, I slash open a few bags of soil improver and spread it about a bit. The mulch layer is a good 15-20cm deep and it looks BEYOND beautiful.
That's it. Every day for five days. I'm still not finished...(you can see where I'm up to in the above picture)...hoping to get my Rotter involved today with the last bit. I think the happiness here is that old thing of just doing what you can...a tiny bit every day, and then suddenly realising you've done the whole thing. The other wonderful by-product is that you get your bed ready to receive bulbs by the bus-load. Yes, as you can imagine, all is rather well in my world right now.
Other things that have happened this week
1. I finished my book! Totally finished and going into production next week friends! I'm stupidly happy with it and hoping that everyone will find it useful (or if not useful, then at least inspiring)
2. I had my first day of ALL CHILDREN IN SCHOOL ALL DAY! I lay on the sofa for about an hour and then the novelty wore off. It is a bit of a game changer though because:
3. I was able to have lunch with people! I never have lunch with people! Yay!
4. I learned that children do not need instruction with most things. On Friday I had to teach thirty cub scouts how to clean windows. None of them heard a word of what I said about putting too much product on the window and how that would just make more work for them in the elbow grease department. But every single one of them found out by themselves after spraying too much product on the windows and regretting it. Someone else was teaching them how to iron, and a third person was instructing them on how to make a cup of tea. I asked for a cup of tea this morning but didn't get one. RUBBISH!
So yes, a little more space and time than I'm used to, and I wrote a list of sorts, to keep my brain away from any of the SMALL STUFF that inevitably insists on burrowing in there like one of those african flies that lays its eggs beneath your skin and said eggs make you ill and crazy....Here's the list and it's in no particular order. Sow sweet peas: Because sweet peas MANDATORY
Take salvia cuttings: Because THE JOY OF SALVIA (more on this next week)
POND! Clear it and possibly net it: Because life is too short
Renovate flower bed (in progress)
Plant up pergola: Because this is rapidly becoming my favourite part of the garden
Chop dead bits: Because not all dead bits are beautiful
Clear and weed for bulbs (in progress)
ORDER BULBS! Because duh!
Harvest apples: Because APPLE PIE
Empty pots: Because NEW BEGINNINGS.
Aerate lawn: Because I love a bit of stomping about in my spiky sandals
Bring in hippeastrum: Because sorry but it's THAT TIME.
All the good things as always
x Laetitia