Removing weed membrane, planting, sawing and sunflowers.

 When we first laid the path in the vegetable garden 16 years ago I put down weed membrane. It must be called weed membrane because weeds grow so well in it! It  does work well in the short term, and is useful for preparing a new area for planting, but without very regular hoeing, within a year or two dandelion roots pierce their way through and couch grass and bind weed weave a tangled web. Now we are pulling the weed membrane up, the worms and all the other soil residents are free again!

Within two or three years of laying down the membrane, with hardcore beneath and small stone on top, the path was so weedy and grassy that we began to mow it and for many years it simply looked like a grass path. This spring, I mulched the grassy path with chipped willow from the garden shredder to suppress all the grass and weeds. In September we pulled up the weed membrane and riddled what had been over it, returning the stone and chipped bark to the path.

What came through the riddle was beautiful soil. Here Alfie is eating a fig in the small tunnel where we have just spread the riddled soil from the path.

Whatever I am doing Alfie wants to do too!

(Right now he is sleeping).

 I have been dividing and propagating even more than usual this year and there are always plants in pots that need planting out. This one is a persicaria.

One of the Buddlejas in the meadow was smothering its neighbor.

 Not anymore. 

I was rolling pastry and when finished, Alfie rolled the flour! It was So smooth.

Another year, another sunflower!
 

 

The seeds from the above sunflower.

Tivon's 2014 sunflower pattern.

Just One of last years seeds grew this head of seeds, the circle of life.