Woodland paths

Let’s have an essay in brown this week. Woody brown.

We have been busy in the forest tree cutting.

This time for our neighbours in the next farm down the mountain. Behold the glorious ‘commute’ to work.

And at long last the forestry workers have taken away the huge pile of cut logs from the side of the road up from our farm.

All gone, but my goodness look what was left behind. A huge pile of thick pine bark from the felled trees.

It has made me pause each morning on my other ‘commute’ around the mountain on my walk.

Could I filch some for a path?

The dry garden has a sinuous 30 metre path ambling through the shrubs. But it was looking a bit weedy. Achillea is creeping over. And so too is the clump of salvias at the far end. If I just tried a few bags of bark maybe it would work….

The colour is definitely right for the path. It is a woodland garden of sorts. With two huge pine trees.

And once they have had a winter of weather, the bark will soften and prove quite easy to walk on.

But I realised I needed to be more jigsaw obsessed with the placing of the huge fat pieces.

That’s better.

It has taken a week or so as of course I have had to go back four times to replenish my ‘stock’.

And goodness it’s quite the neighbourly talking point as people drive past and ask ‘what on earth are you doing with that?’ But it is on a blind corner so I have felt rather furtive with my loading of the sacks and doing a quick drive by to fill the boot.

I have had to weed as I worked. No point putting down mulch without removing the nasties first.

I have just finished. And celebrated with a long pacing out of the path to test for sturdiness (I need to be able to race out in my slippers for bay leaves which grow at the far end). And to find out just how long it is.

Pleased with that.

A proper little woodland path.

Now you won’t want to make such a mulch if you are worried about young plants and slugs.

It’s the perfect hiding place under the thick pieces for all sorts of life. But this garden is well established now.

And I doubt the slugs would have fun trying to munch on any of these Mediterranean drought tolerant shrubs.

I need to do another afternoon of mild weeding at the far end and then I can call it ‘ready’. Ready for bulb planting next week.

The ground is deliciously soft after our whopping 135mm of rain this past week.

The only downside is soaking trousers from leaning on the ground to yank out little annual weeds. A small price to pay for weeding comfortably.