The first strim

It has been a week of firsts but not of the same ilk. The gentle emergence of some narcissus out of the ground, and the roaring blast of the strimmer getting it’s first 2014 outing.

It did take Manu and Bernard to help me unscrew the strimmer head which was jammed.  But once fixed, there was no stopping me.  I wanted to get all the bank below the pool (it’s huge and very scruffy) back to a neat and cleared state.

The flood had pushed a lot of soil and mulch and stones over this bank, onto the wall and down the other side. It was not a pretty sight; and I had to take off the soil from the wall top before it became well entrenched.  I foresee a project this summer of sitting on top of the wall with a wire brush and scrubbing any of the vegetation out of the stones.

But for now it was just hefty raking and strimming.  And trying to convince Artur that small elderly cats do no belong close to a loud swinging machine with lethal blades.

I suspect he is getting a bit deaf in his old age. He refused to budge.  And every time I stopped to replace the blades or just rest, he leapt onto my lap for some attention.

I suspect too that there are mouse holes here in the steep bank.  He spends a bit of time here staring intently at rocks.  Or maybe he is just soaking up the sun.  It was gorgeously mild and sunny today. Perfect for lazing about and soaking it up.  But that doesn’t happen on this farm.

The main reason for strimming like mad today was to get the raw material – the thatch.  I need it to cover the areas around the bushes in the soft fruit orchard.

I’ve done this before with lawn clippings, but this time I have recycled the weed proof fabric that used to live under the gravel in the courytard (another flood victim) and put it down first.

It doesn’t look very pretty. But I just need to spend the next few months mowing and strimming and collecting and then letting it settle down to a bland weedproof cover.  I won’t make enough mulch with the chipping machine to cover this huge area over the next few months, that’s for sure.

I also strimmed the bottom of the steep bank directly above the pool which was in sore need of a clear up.  I raked every blade of dead grass and added it to the orchard pile.

When I look carefully at this huge area I think it cries out for a more structured planting scheme.  The eragrostis grasses do an okay job on the steep sections, but the wildflower meadow look on the narrow strip at the bottom is a bit hit and miss.  Some years it’s divine, others it just looks scruffy.

But to do it properly I’d probably need about sixty or seventy sub shrubs or plants.  And the thymes, which I love, are too dark a green to sit next to the grasses.  And the lavenders (another super cheap alternative)  are too pale.  What on earth would blend?

So with these thoughts as I raked and snagged my jumper on random bramble tendrils that hid under the grasses, I have decided to participate in the great garden alternative action plan – walk away and attend to something else.

With a garden this big, there is always something else to distract you.