Garden Club - A Good Tidy Up

I have been out in the garden and have been able to clear a lot of the surface weeds but I know there will be much more this coming season as the weeds last summer set seed.

I am very lucky to have a neighbour with a beautiful tree in their garden, all the birds visit and sing over the course of the year. In the autumn, I can gather the leaves to make leaf mulch for my garden. However, what is not so lovely and the bane of every year is the seedlings. They fall in great numbers and plant themselves all over my garden. When they sprout their two little leaves I pay a penny for each one picked and call upon any daughter, niece or nephew who is willing to earn some pocket money.

Sadly, last year this did not happen. As I have been working in the garden, this week, I have found hundreds of them and they are no longer little easy to pull two leaf seedlings but well-rooted baby trees.

Thankfully some of the new Garden Club members came around on Saturday morning and we spent a lovely bright sunny hour pulling out as many as they could find.

In the afternoon, some of the older learners came over and helped shift 1000 litres of mulch from the front of the house where it was delivered, to the back of the house where it was actually needed. They then got stuck into digging out three shrubs that had died and chopping back one that had got well over grown. I am very grateful for all the help.

Now that the garden is back under control I can get on with the planning of what to grow and where. I am considering the space I have and what is already growing as I have many already established fruit trees.

I have already started the process of giving my patch a thorough going over in order to break up the soil and get rid of any remaining weeds. I have, where possible, dug over the ground, taking the time to remove any weed roots.

As I look around at the progress I can see that the edges of my raised beds need repairing, that will have to be added to the list of my jobs to do.

First things first, you’ll need to give your patch a thorough going over in order to break up the soil and get rid of any remaining weeds. You should dig down to at least one spade depth – and a bit further if possible. Take the time to remove any weed roots or stems so that they can’t re-grow and remove as many stones from the soil as possible.

Don't forget to record your time and what you have done in your diary, take photographs as you prepare your area for your evidence diary and you can record this as Garden Club. For those who helped at the weekend - you can add volunteering to the diary - and thank you so much once again for all the help.