A soft play area for wild boar

Yep. That was my thought when I had emptied the last, very last bag of leaves onto the bare soil.

This place is going to be heaven for the wild boar. They will be running amok in no time.

But I just couldn’t countenance bare earth under the mulberry with Spring threatening.

We are still mid winter here.

Blustery one day; misty and gloomy early on. Then sudden hints of spring sunshine and the reminder I need to get a move on.

This lower terrace ‘diversion’ has meant I’m behind with cutting back the grasses, the mulberry in the courtyard and the vines.

But with Romain available for heavy lifting and garden work I was able to get help shifting the (ahem) 30 or so buckets of soil I excavated from these terraces. It would have take me days to haul them up the mountain.

They have gone up to the main vegetable garden.

And with that horrid job done I was able to twinkle down with a rake and actually landscape the area. It looks almost groomed.

But that won’t last.

I had thought to seed it with clover. But my experience is that clover isn’t the right cover crop. It flowers magnificently and then dies back dramatically. Leaving me with a difficult job of either cutting it back or just accepting its rather sorry state until the rains come in autumn.

And believe me, this area under the branches of the mulberry is a tricky area to work. You crouch. You smack your head on branches at excellently placed head height. You let forth rather fruity language when you brain yourself by not looking where you are going. And you can’t get under with the lawnmower anymore.

It is not a lot of fun.

So what to do?

I do have one raw material of mulch at this time of year close by.

Oak leaves. A forest of them.

So why not try a thick mulch this year under the tree and see how it fares?

Warming work raking up the necessary thick cover required.

In fact it took almost a day. The photos just never actually show how large an area this is to cover.

But it’s doing the job.

And with actual rain forecast it might settle down and not get blown about.

Let’s see if it stays in place and keeps down the weeds.