Levelling soil

Two whole days of relative inactivity: and now I’m back.

The rake feels as if it has barely left my hands.

Once the snow melted I could see just what a challenge these two new areas are going to be.  A bulldozer can work miracles, but it can’t do lovely smooth surfaces.

Well, if we had more time we might. But I was confronted with a very dispiriting sight today.

Here is the area behind the stables.

Still way too many huge boulders, and nary a flat bit of land to play with.

How large is the area? I didn’t stop to measure it out. That would have required taking long pacing stride to measure the distance, and with pinging sciatica, that was not going to happen.  At at guess I would say it is 4m by 10 metres. And it slopes.

Well there’s a surprise in this garden. I mean it falls away to a terrace that holds up the land before the road.

I raked and raked and worked out I need to get the soil from the top of the plot to the bottom.  And I know that this calls for buckets and a wheelbarrow and a bit more heft.

So that will be next week after the osteopath appointment, then.

But I’m pleased with my progress. Nothing more.

And I was curious. I have just had a delve into the archives to see if I ever photographed this part of the garden before.

And over ten years the answer is ‘rarely’. Here it is before 2014.

Just a bramble field with an unnecessary cherry (which died).

And in 2014 Bebere and Etienne had to do some work on the drainage of the stables and did a rough bit of landscaping round the back.

You can see how much I gritted my teeth when this was done while I was away.

I didn’t need a path through this garden; I would have begged them to flatten it.

And for three years I have been sighing rather theatrically under my breath.

It’s better. And as I have to hide the eyesore that is the boundary of our property, I might use this damp shaded area to place all my soft fruit cuttings.  Right on the far edge. (Once I have shoved more of those boulders out of the way.)

I will probably lay the rest to grass once I get it properly levelled. I know, that’s a bit of a cop out. But as we are poised for spring I know that my only visit round here behind the stables will be to chuck things into the compost heap.

Actually sowing the grass seed will be hilarious. Hoses don’t reach this far. So it will be sow with grass seed just before a week of hopefully inclement weather and see what turns up.

I’ll be doing the same for the parking area.

Once I’ve spent another long afternoon trying to rake it flatter.

Like my stones? Future wall building ahead!