A Weekend of Hard Work

My lovely lovely neighbours on the uphill side, behind the retaining wall, offered to fund 3 students for an afternoon, plus a truck load of top soil.  What an amazing offer!  So I said "nah, it'll be right".  Hah, not likely, it was "wow yes please".

They dug clay (surprise), moved rocks (surprise), flattened out the backyard, and then spread 3 bags of lime - the white stuff.  This is supposed to break down the clay.  Earlier I tried out an experiment to see if it really worked, but couldn't tell, so will have to take it on trust that is as marvelous as advertised.

Then...the top soil.  A truck load is a fair amount, all sitting neatly up on the grass verge.  The students ran out of time, but I started on it on Sunday.  I've managed to spread a thin layer over most of the lime - I'm not quite sure how lime will go on cat's feet, and tongues.  So my plan is to spend my lunchtimes doing 10 wheelbarrow loads a day.  Should get there in the end.  Doesn't it look just so good now though?

The Quarry

This lovely circular area used to be my vegetable garden. It has 20 years of compost under all this.  But alas, the digger driver decided to dump all the waste crumbly concrete from the 100 year old wall on to it. We've (boys) got rid of a lot of the really big chunks - some had to be broken up with a kanga hammer - I even paid Hire-a-Hubby to cart some away.

 

Now we are sieving the remainder through a chicken wire mesh on a little frame. The stuff that falls through is lovely soil - mainly the old garden compost I guess. The rocks that fall on the outside will be just right for fill behind the new little retaining wall by the patio.  Slow slow slow work though, although very satisfying - you take a pile of rubbish and throw it at the sieve, and get 2 piles of excellently useful stuff.