Lacerations

Yep. The day lived up to my expectations. I am utterly, utterly lacerated. It looks like I’ve gone ten rounds with a rabid cat.

But it was well worth the scratches. I now have a top vegetable garden that is bramble free.

The picture looks like I’ve covered a dead horse with a tarp.   But actually this is just one giant project of ground covering.   This vegetable garden is fourteen metres long and eight metres wide.   And I only use a portion of that to grow veg.   The rest of the area seems to be a bramble breeding ground.

And I inherited some very poor fencing.   Wonky wire on wobbly posts.   But I don’t want to invest just yet in a new picket fence. Or fanstasy land – stone walls.   So I have to put up with creeping weeds.

First up was to dig out the brambles that grow right up to the edge of the side path.   That’s where I usually put down weedproof fabric to make a walking path through the garden.

And then on with the worst of the top of the potager – it’s up a steep slope. So balancing playfully on the tops of my toes, I yanked out brambles and tendrils and bits of skin as I got a purchase on the damn things.

But this is the only time to do it as the season is still almost dormant. So I don’t regret the effort.   And I was able to place my newly purchased weedproof plastic down for 2012.

Andrew gave me the tip about this product.   It’s actually agricultural silage plastic.   The black stuff they wrap hay in over the summer.   And it’s cheap as can be as you buy it in bulk.

And bulky it was. I had to place it over the road just to cut off the length I needed.   And then had the fun of dragging it up and into place.

It ain’t pretty, but if it keeps out brambles and weeds then I’ll put up with a bit of unaesthetic veggie gardening.

Actually I can lift it up a bit and give myself more growing space on the flat.   But I have to dig and weed the lower part of this vegetable area first.

I can’t believe it took me all day just to weed the edges and get the fabric down.   But that’s gardening for you.   The only shame was Artur didn’t come and help. I could have done with a laugh watching a cat sledging down the slope on the slippery plastic.   But he is snoozing elsewhere in the daytime right now.   I get morning and late afternoon visits.   And the occasional sighting on the terraces.   Contrary cat.