Saturday, October 04, 2014

Back to Eden Garden...Part 3...removal of the lawn and spreading manure.

Today, we made a LOT of progress. Every muscle in my body hurts. My feet hurt and the fingernail I slammed on a railway tie while holding another is most unpleasant. I can feel my heartbeat. Suck it up Erin. I have so many lovely photos to share with you!! Today was lawn removal and manure spreading. I helped using the wonderful potato fork that belonged to my grandfather. My dad gave it to me and it is truly the most valuable tool I've ever used.
The pictures:


Mark moving manure to the garden.


I love this picture. I tell people that I would like to have a tractor and put it on the lawn so that everyone could gaze at it's beauty. What do you think? 


You know how I love a steaming manure pile. 


Look how beautiful that earth looks. Mark is taking the lawn to his place to compost. Win, win.


A little bit of everything happening here. 


Mark filling in the enormous hole left by the willow. 


And...more manure. 


Another tractor picture. 


Beginning to see the garden taking shape. 


My mom dropped by for a look. She's all set. Water bottle and rubber shoes!!


A late afternoon view from my own back yard. Watching the dream of a large garden happening before my eyes. 


Almost done with the manure. Then comes the wood chip layer. 


You can see the area to the left that Mark excavated for a bit of a patio for Noel and Amanda. All in all it was a wonderful day of much hard work...and satisfaction. 



The recipe I'm using for my Back to Eden garden is :

4 inches of manure first layer
4 inches of wood chips second layer
A thin layer, 2 inches or so, of manure for the top layer

6 comments:

Mark Willis said...

What an exciting prospect! Not many gardeners ever get the opportunity to "start with a clean slate" like that.

Powell River Books said...

That's going to be a big garden. Bet you can't wait for spring. - Margy

Erin said...

It is an amazing opportunity. I blew up a copy of the lot plan and will have everything planned by spring.

Erin said...

Margy. You are right. I will be spending months planning it.

Gardeningbren said...

Loving this! Wonderfully exciting. Can't believe the change so far!

Erin said...

Isn't it just wonderful. Today I planted a Japanese Maple in the front bed. It felt good to be putting something back. :-)