15 July 2020
On Wednesday the day was overcast, with threatened thunderstorms. This is rare in July, and gave us a great opportunity to do a little work in the garden. I had been wanting to prepare some ground for our embryonic Forest Garden, using the pond liner offcuts as mulch.
On Wednesday the day was overcast, with threatened thunderstorms. This is rare in July, and gave us a great opportunity to do a little work in the garden. I had been wanting to prepare some ground for our embryonic Forest Garden, using the pond liner offcuts as mulch.
As the ground slopes, I thought we could build swale-paths on contour. These involve digging out a slight ditch, and filling it with woodchip. The ditch will collect rainwater and help it infiltrate the ground, while the woodchip reduces compaction of the soil when it is walked upon.
At this stage, all I needed to do was use my A-frame level-finder and lay out a rope along the contour.
I then put down cardboard along the line of the future path, weighted down with sticks and stones.
I made three pathways to be, and then started filling in with pond liner.
The finished area, cut round a Linden, Peach and Robinia tree, as well as a couple of shrubs. Hopefully in Feb or March next year, when we lift the mulch, we'll find less grass and weeds than otherwise, and by then we'll have the area designed, with seeds and plants ready to go in. The mulch materials can then be moved to the next patch - and so on. It's a slow process, but anything too big becomes rapidly overwhelming, and the weeds just move back in.
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