Pavers to Gardens

 The back of the house faces east so last summer we put up an awning and shade sails to reduce the direct sunlight on the window and to shade the pavers around the pool as they trap and emit a lot of heat.

In an effort to further improve the heat sink/trap I dug up three rows of pavers under the window and placed cardboard, newspaper and dead leaves on, leaving the ferns that were already growing there.

 Then I got some wheelbarrows of sand from Danny's hole and placed that on top to weigh it all down. I have now transplanted some daisies and hope that they will like this dry and sunny area. They look terrible at the moment as we had some hot days, once they start to thrive i will add another image.

Wood Chip Paths

We have been so pleased with the results of making the path areas in the garden wood chipped paths rather than grass that we have also decided to make the path between the main garden and driveway ,mulch too. We have had cardboard down for a few weeks to kill the grass, but had initially intended to pave it. However we realised that that would not resist the invasive grass nor provide the water retention and habitat that we want to encourage. This did mean that this area had to be dug out to make it level with the existing driveway, digging is something we generally avoid and this was an excellent reminder of why. It took a lot of time and energy to remove this small strip, imagine if we had had to do the whole garden!

Once the area was lowered, grass roots in the bin, soil placed on top of the new no- dig garden, we placed cardboard we had collected from a local recycling bin at a department store down. The cardboard from there tends to be thick and we want it to prevent weeds, rather than  encourage them to breakdown, so it is the best option in this case.

We then covered the cardboard with woodchips and are really pleased with the results. Our driveway is very old and not in great condition, but we are still not sure of the most sustainable way to remedy all of the problems that are involved with dealing with it. Sometimes you just have to wait, observe and keep researching before you make a decision.

The we relooked at the newest no - dig garden and realised that as we had left a rectangle of grass we were going to have the same problem with grass invading the bed. We then decided that we would put another wood chip path alongside that bed to make it harder for the grass.

Luckily we had collected lots of cardboard from the recycling bin so we had enough, plus old sleepers to start preparing for the next paths. Meanwhile the whole garden is looking happier and the amount of food producing space will be doubled once we put the manure and final layer of mulch onto the new garden.

Next Layers - No Dig Garden

I have now spread out the next layer of grass clippings donated by a local lawn mower man and mixed it with shredded paper.

The next step was to vist some local shops and add the cardboard collected from there with the cardboard from my work canteen. At the moment I am using pavers to hold this down but hope to go out to a local pony club I have just been told about and pick up a trailer of free manure to go on top.
Within a few weeks I will be able to plant in this, within a year it should have speed composted itself into soil.