Files and Records

Tag: ivy

  • The story so far…

    In the beginning, the garden looked like this:

    DSC_1036

    Actually, that wasn’t quite the beginning.  Rewind a little further, lose the step that shows we’re actively working on it and it looked more like this:

    IMG_20131130_153054

    That’s more like it.  I took this shot from as far down the garden as I could get.  Right behind me was this:

    IMG_20131130_153017What you’ve got here is a very sophisticated Buddleja scaffolding holding up over a decade’s worth of brambles.  There’s a back wall in there somewhere, far, far away.

    Now, fast-forward to now.  We’ve had a few weekends (and the odd day) concentrated working on the garden. We’ve put in a shed, cleared bag* after bag* of ivy, brambles, buddleja and assorted garden crap.  We’re nowhere near finished, but we’ve made a start…

    We’ve made a start on the herb garden, the fruit trees are here and ready to be planted as soon as I’ve collected another bag* of horse manure.

    The next step – the next step – is chickens.  Then a yurt.

    Ever wish you’d never started something?

    *Bag – 1 cubic metre, or thereabouts.

  • The Lincolnshire Diaries – Part 2, Cometh the hour, cometh the shed

    It’s here!  It’s built!  It’s in the garden and it’s full of stuff!  Well, only about 1/3 full so far but there’s plenty of stuff needing to go in there.

    IMG_20131208_132257

    It looks better than this now, Thing5 and I painted it green yesterday morning, finished the trim and everything…

    And we started tackling the garden this weekend.  Massive fun for everyone, all the kids got stuck in removing years of excess ivy, brambles and general overgrowth.  We wrecked one old fork and seriously bent one new one removing the first of the bramble roots.  Seriously, some of these things have main stalks 2 inches in diameter and there’s over a dozen of them.  Not sure the holly tree would survive removal of them, so any tips and hints on removing them gratefully received!

    Over course of the afternoon, we turned the garden from this:

    IMG_20131130_152835to this…

    IMG_20131208_132248We found 2 decent garden chairs, took a huge sack of rubbish to the skip (all broken stuff, several chairs, one scooter, a load of wire and the random stuff found under the nettles) and decided the best way to get rid of the remainder was a good, old-fashioned, bonfire.  Well, either that or endless trips to the recycling centre.

    Turns out dried holly leaves make for an incredible firestarter!

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    And all that was left of was a pile of ashes.  Nice.

    Next step, some minor additions to my gentleman’s toolkit.  I’m thinking large axe, chainsaw and wheelbarrow…