One cupressus hedge is scalped and the branches cut up and transported to the recycling center. One of the bits of growth cut down was nearly 10 feet long, which meant in total the top was about 19ft from the ground before lopping off.
The green manure is now of a size that it can be dug in. Tried several techniques to dig in after first cutting the growth down with garden shears. We have four raised beds to dig. Firstly tried digging over with a small fork. That was OK, but took a lot of effort. The second experiment was with a small spade, and this was more successful as a "lump" of soil could be lifted and turned, burying most of the greenery.
I gave up after two raised beds, will return to that tomorrow- arms and back a bit weary from all the cutting and ferrying of the hedge remains to the recycling center. Took three runs and our poor trailer was complaining about the weight of stuff it had to carry!
Rosie has found a treasure. On her walk with E, she discovered a chew bone that another dog must have dropped. She proudly carried it home without once letting it go, and is now roaming the house, not sure what to do with it.
Not looking forward to dealing with the second hedge as it is in and around a shed, a greenhouse and a lean to off the garage.
Will probably have to adopt the technique that a professional tree surgeon did when it was last cut, which is to cut a flat ledge on top of the hedge, place a large flat board on this and use it as a platform to move forward. Apparently with an old hedge this is quite a stable way to operate as the trunks are at least four or five inches thick, it should support the weight.
Time will tell!
Showing posts with label Green manure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Green manure. Show all posts
Tuesday, 16 August 2011
Sunday, 31 July 2011
Green Manure
The raised beds have come to fruition in our garden and are now sprouting their first crop, a green manure from mustard seeds. The seedlings are now big enough to see from the house, a few days ago, you struggled to see them.
In our garden revamp E and I decided to grow more vegetables- trouble is our garden subsoil is pure sand, dig about 18 inches and the "soil" turns a bright yellow. (Once, when digging a hole for a gatepost, I did not have enough sand to make some concrete, so used some of the sand from the hole- worked a treat!)
So this makes growing vegetables and almost anything else a bit of a struggle, especially during very dry spells of weather. This lead us to thinking about raised beds. We ended up with a plan for four of them, and after careful searching local timber yards and on the internet we decided on 4ft by 8 ft (1.2m by 2.4m approx) beds, and the wood chosen was 7cm by 26cm high. (3 inch by 10 inch approx) which should last a fair while. One of the beds is double height, 52cm (for long tap rooted veg or ones that need to be buried deeply such as leeks or potatoes) and needed about a tonne of topsoil to fill it.
Of course being so thick and wide, the timbers (2.4 m long) weigh about 40 kilos each, so our venerable trolley/porters barrow, was pressed in to service to wheel them in to place. This was the ultimate sacrifice as the small castor wheels gave up the ghost and shed their bearings and the main wheels started to wobble a lot. We have had the trolley at least 20 years and it cost us all of £10 to £12 I think. So a replacement was ordered from Amazon, this duly arrived (now costing £22) and needed hand assembley which was fine.
First used yesterday and I struggled with it to haul some small paving slabs. I was very surprised when comparing the new trolley to the old one, discovering it was about two thirds the size, and the handle was considerably shorter than the old one, which was why it was hard work.
So its not just Waggon Wheel biscuits that have got smaller over the years!
So a revamp for the old trolley is planned - the new one will be used as a sack barrow for compost and bird seed bags, and the old one will once revamped go back to being the workhorse.
Once the green manure crop is big enough, it will be dug in and we will then plant up with either quick growing crops or overwintering ones as we have missed part of the growing season already.
In our garden revamp E and I decided to grow more vegetables- trouble is our garden subsoil is pure sand, dig about 18 inches and the "soil" turns a bright yellow. (Once, when digging a hole for a gatepost, I did not have enough sand to make some concrete, so used some of the sand from the hole- worked a treat!)
So this makes growing vegetables and almost anything else a bit of a struggle, especially during very dry spells of weather. This lead us to thinking about raised beds. We ended up with a plan for four of them, and after careful searching local timber yards and on the internet we decided on 4ft by 8 ft (1.2m by 2.4m approx) beds, and the wood chosen was 7cm by 26cm high. (3 inch by 10 inch approx) which should last a fair while. One of the beds is double height, 52cm (for long tap rooted veg or ones that need to be buried deeply such as leeks or potatoes) and needed about a tonne of topsoil to fill it.
Of course being so thick and wide, the timbers (2.4 m long) weigh about 40 kilos each, so our venerable trolley/porters barrow, was pressed in to service to wheel them in to place. This was the ultimate sacrifice as the small castor wheels gave up the ghost and shed their bearings and the main wheels started to wobble a lot. We have had the trolley at least 20 years and it cost us all of £10 to £12 I think. So a replacement was ordered from Amazon, this duly arrived (now costing £22) and needed hand assembley which was fine.
First used yesterday and I struggled with it to haul some small paving slabs. I was very surprised when comparing the new trolley to the old one, discovering it was about two thirds the size, and the handle was considerably shorter than the old one, which was why it was hard work.
So its not just Waggon Wheel biscuits that have got smaller over the years!
So a revamp for the old trolley is planned - the new one will be used as a sack barrow for compost and bird seed bags, and the old one will once revamped go back to being the workhorse.
Once the green manure crop is big enough, it will be dug in and we will then plant up with either quick growing crops or overwintering ones as we have missed part of the growing season already.
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