Paths much travelled

I am making tracks all over the farm.  Wheeling a wheelbarrow full of soil, stones, logs, broken tiles and finally gravel.  All in the aid of the paths in the potager.  And even though I’m yawning and ready for bed, I’m not dying from the exertion. So more tomorrow.

This is my preferred method of transport. Small and portable and if I’m feeling strong, I can get three full buckets in a wheelbarrow and plod.

And best of all, I’m tidying as I go along.  There are piles of small things all around the farm that I find I can use to fill in the paths of the potager.

And silly me; I didn’t need to do this in the first place. I dug them out in my enthusiastic winter relandscaping phase. Imagining that I would have lovely tall raised bed by digging down knee deep between each bed, and lining the sides with weed proof fabric and artful and decorative chestnut poles. 

The moles and then my poor building skills put paid to that. I found that the sides kept collapsing despite reinforcing them with concrete reinforcing rods and weedproof fabric.

So after a few months of glaring at the problem, I have come up with the solution. Fill them back in.  At least I moved all the lovely soil that was in the paths onto the beds, so increased my depths.

First up was to think what to fill the paths with.  My first sighting of  a neglected patch of logs beyond the potting shed was my starter.  Down they came and I filled in the deepest path with logs.  Then covered the lot with soil to make it soft.  Cut out more plastic to make a smooth surface, and then top dressed with gravel.

But wood is not ideal as it will rot down. So I came up with the idea of using all the broken roof tiles from the last guest house roof replacing project.  Perfect. They are great rubble and you get the added benefit of being able to smash the big tiles from a great height (most satisfying) to get them to fit in the paths.

I will run out of those alas, so will have to resort to wood again. I’m eyeing the leftover wood from our roof renovation project of years and years back.  They are just sitting in a neat(ish) stack up at the far end of the property doing nothing. Not even rotting much.

The first path is done. And it looks glaringly bright. But that’s only because the river stones are full of dirt.  One good shower of ran and they ought to turn a nice granite colour to match the huge barn walls at the back of the bed.

So Tuesday, day one.  Eight more paths to go.  I did four today.  Or was it five?  I do have to rely on the kindness of friends and family to wheel the heavy loads of broken tiles and such.  I’m not going to kill myself for the sake of these paths. I’m way too busy for that.