Piles of Dirt

A few months ago I had a discussion with Steve about starting a veggie patch, which turned into a long debate about what I could and couldn't do and how none of my ideas would work. We took several trips to Bunnings to price up sleepers and metal plates and god knows what else to hold it all together Now I just wanted a regular, slightly built up veggie patch but Steve was determined to build something that would be around for the next 150 years and strong enough to house a powerful and extremely dangerous small animal should the need arise. What is it with engineers!! Well the final cost came out at about $300, so we thought we would do it in two halves and see how it went, so I moved my herbs out of their garden, which is where the veggie patch is going, and waited.............................................

As you can see the herbs are well established - and I'm still waiting

This I took this morning of my now abandoned and neglected herb garden. What a sorry sight, so I took matters into my own hands and decided I would just make the garden half the height and twice as long and ta-dah a veggie garden. As soon as Steve was gone I got stuck into pulling weeds and tunnelling for those wretched roots of that horrible grass stuff that goes everywhere. Australian readers can probably tell me what it is, I just know it as a pain in the rear end. I'm not an early eater so by 9.30 I stopped for a much needed coffee and some toast and had got this far.

You can see now what I am aiming to do. I had to move my compost bin out of the way first so the compost is now on a tarp with I can drag around the garden until I'm ready to add it to the bed. The little tree that has grown up by that post will have to go, just one more job to make life a bit more difficult, and I have taken down half of the end wall.

Fortified with toast and honey, I thought about digging up the tall pole at the back and moving it to the "new end" of the garden, but as you can see, that mound of earth just kept growing and the concrete holding it in seemed to go on for ever, so I gave up on the idea. I thought the two poles might come in handy for growing tall things anyway.

By just after 12 I was stuffed and my back wasn't taking too kindly to all this digging and shifting. I need to get a couple of new end poles and some quick dry cement to hold them in. Then I have to find a way of holding the front poles together, my plans always have one major flaw and I think this might be it, but it is beginning to take shape.

Unlike someone I wont mention, I put away all the tools I had used and lined up the barrow and compost neatly against the wall ready for my next effort. The compost bin has a bit of a lean to it, but I think it will survive :)