Why relaxing in the garden is so exhausting

[Diane]

Sending you big hugs XX

I did read your signature and wondered about it, but didn't like to ask. Now I wish I had.

Your gardening efforts put mine to shame.

[robo]

Its not stones that is the problem on my raised beds its small plastic flowers and leaves i am digging them up by the bucket full this is obviously when im back home , the reason is our council in their wisdom tipped a lot of soil outside our allotment it was not great but better than nothing i used it to fill 5 raised beds it was only after it was all used up that we found it was from the crematorium hence the remains of wreaths and plastic bouquets

[peter]

Same here Robo, but plus copious bindweed in what is allegedly composted leaves from the cemetery.

Chunks of Hertfordshire clay, bouquet wrappings and random street/cemetery debris plus aforementioned bindweed.

[Primrose]

Pa Snip I sympathise over the stones. Our garden seems to be built on Thames Valley gravel. When we first moved to this house, which was new at the time and a typical bare builder's yard I was appalled at the number of stones. I spent the first couple of years filling buckets with stones and taking them to the tip. But every time it rained new ones came to the surface. It has taken me many years to realise that however many stones I try to remove, you can never defeat nature.

They bring their problems, apart from looking unsightly. The soil dries out so quickly and I can never produce enough compost and humus to dig in. And every time we trim the edge of the lawn with the strimmer, the damned things break the plastic cutters.

[Ricard with an H]

My favourite moan, stones.

In the photo I have dug over where the soil meets grass, a strip of a foot wide by twenty foot. I only removed the large stones and you can what I got in the barrow.

Next come Roto-sieve and another barrow full of smaller stones though still the size of hens eggs.

[Primrose]

Richard. What do you do with all your stones? Do you have a ballast contract with the builders of the new new East/West motorway or do you have some very fine rockeries?

My mum, now sadly dead, used to dig them up from their Sussex garden and every time my parents went for a walk along the nearby seafront she would deposit a carrier bag of them in one of the litter bins on the prom. As you can imagine, trying to get rid them all was a retirement long project,

[Ricard with an H]

I have places where I tip the stones against the Pembrokeshire banks, Pembrokeshire banks tend to be built of stones that the plow has unearthed. I also tip course waste on the edges. I know, it sounds untidy though if I throw some soil over the stones and some wildflower seeds I get a display during summer. I'm amazed at what is happy to grow in stony ground with a bit of soil in it and doesn't do well otherwise.

Sadly, I don't have a lot of good top soil that I can lay my hands on without getting a machine in and disturbing what's taken 15 years to create, I don't grow wildflowers on the paddock though I do have around 400 metres of Pembrokeshire banks covered in wildflower and tall grasses. Little birds are in-and-out, bees and all sorts of flying things love the banks. I also have a wildflower patch about the size of half a tennis court that was dedicated to cornfield annuals though quite a few perennials have reinstated themselves. Corncockle is now a major self-seeder though I can't get corn marigold going I try every year. The corn marigold regularly self seeds in my gravel driveway so I re-pot and move them but that patch is now so well inhabited it's difficult to get anything new in there.

[Ricard with an H]

I'm not showing you the messy bit but what I am showing used to be messy, old tyres, concrete, rubble. It's what farmers do.

All around the one acre I have these banks, I cut it down when I'm allowed too. Thats when the farmers trim the hedges with the bushwhacker. Early spring and late autumn so they don't disturb nesting and breeding.

[Primrose]

Lovely wild flowers Richard. Bet the bees love them. Part of me would dearly like to have this amount t of space to play with but the realist in me makes me realise that as I'm getting older I would never be able to keep on top of it all. I Imagine with so much growing everywhere you must sometimes feel you are never allowed the luxury of day off if it's gardening weather.!

[Ricard with an H]

It is regular work in the spring, summer and autumn and often it's too much for me. Having said that what else would I do in my autumn years.

I gave up a lot of sporting activity and I'm not good at sitting and staring and manage in the same way as described by others. A regular sit down and have a few jobs on the go means when my back hurts I change jobs. Walking brings on pain so organizing myself and having different jobs helps me through the day.

The grass cutting is by three different machines that do three different jobs, I have pals who take the Mickey because they don't know anyone with three mowers. I have a ride-on that doesn't collect, a Honda 3.5 side eject and a massive 6 horse collect mower. They are all no-compromise machines that do what they do very well.

Creating the kitchen garden and annually expanding it has been hard and whilst there are still areas I would like to expand I have got to the point where I can make light work of it in the future.

I did want chickens, she has experience with chickens and has managed to stall my ambition, mostly to with I go to bed very early each day and I barely cope with having a dog. Lots of people round here do chickens so nice eggs isn't a problem until they all stop laying then we appreciate the outfit that does organic all year round.

Thanks for sharing.