More Gardening Adventures - The Still Limping Edition

As I mentioned previously, I have a small fracture in a bone in my right foot due to an unfortunate rolling pin incident.  It didn't stop me from gardening today, I leaned on the shovel to dig instead of using my sore foot to press on it.  I also pulled out loads of weeds and was able to rake up debris.  Carrying 70 litre bags of compost did prove challenging though and after the first few I resorted to using a wheel barrow instead of the firemans lift technique.

There were 3 of us Mums at the gardening session today, our friend popped in to offer encouragement and have a cuppa but weekends are better for her so she'll come and do some gardening then.

We achieved a great deal this afternoon.  The bed that was planted out last week was covered with fleece to stop pesky pigeons nibbling our seedlings.  The remaining 3 vegetable beds were weeded, one of the beds still has work to be done as we were running out of time and energy by that point.

The weeded beds were covered with rotting leaves and compost which was then dug through.  We covered the beds with fleece weighed down with sticks so they can be dormant over winter ready for us to plant vegetables and in the Spring.  The bed we didn't have cover for was covered in cardboard which was then coated with rotting leaves and compost.  The leaves were from the local supermarket carpark as my friend asked the contractors cleaning up the leaves if she could have bags of them this time last year.  She is most resourceful and fantastic at scoring useful freebies for the garden such as leaves, cardboard and cuttings.  We purchased the compost and it was delivered on Monday afternoon in 10 large bags which are rather heavy to haul about.


From this . . . . . .



to this!

We had a very valuable helper too in the form of an enthusiastic 2yo boy who normally sleeps through our gardening session but was awake and enjoying digging today.  There were loads of nettles which needed to be cleared before he was let onto the garden beds, we all have loads of stings on our arms and legs.

Two beds planted out and covered, two beds dug over and covered, one bed to go.

Next week we will finish weeding the last raised bed, cover it with leaves and compost then dig them through.  After that we'll probably just keep an eye on the beds over Winter, weeding as necessary.  It's a good excuse for a buttie and cuppa too! ;o)