More Leaves for Leafmould and Late Lawn Mowing

Yet More Leaves

The sun was shining so grabbed an hour on the plot this afternoon. Finished emptying the leafmould bin on plot 5 and now it is ready to refill.

The next job was to start filling the bins again from the pile the council have kindly dropped at the site. Wet leaves are surprisingly heavy. Normally I fill the wheelbarrow and then a big green bag so that I make less journeys from pile to bin but I couldn’t lift the bag!

So just loading the barrow and trundling down to the plot 29 cage. There is quite a bit of grit in the leaves, which I consider a ‘soil improver’. What always annoys me with leaves is the litter. I know people will always drop litter and that isn’t the problem. The problem is how indestructible modern litter is. Sweet wrappers appear designed to last forever. Even after being in a compost heap for a year they can be retrieved looking like the day they left the shop.

Future archaeologists will think we worshiped Gods that looked like cartoon frogs – for why else would we make their images last for eternity?  

The ground is so wet from all the recent rain that the main paths squelch underfoot and the wood chipping paths on the plots seem to have dissolved into the mud. The slab path on one side of plot 5 is so slippy from the mud that it is difficult to walk on.

This does present a problem as, with frost predicted for the weekend, the leaves will really start to fall and for the last couple of years the council chap has dropped me a load of leaves right by plot 5, which is on the other end of the site from the normal dumping grounds. This year I fear his wagon would just sink into the ground if he comes off the hardstanding.

Lawn Mowing and Pots

The garden at home is basically Val’s domain but I always mow the lawn. She did offer to do it once. Hover mower, open toe sandals, NO! I think she is crazy like a fox at times. Anyway, despite being absolutely sodden, the grass was about to enter the meadow category.

So raised the cut level and gave it a trim. Mid November and it is still growing strong.

We have to conifers in big pots that add an architectural feature (oooh, getting fancy now) but the next size up of pot is the biggest we have found generally available and cost a fortune even for plastic.

So, we decided to just leave them rather than pay out for the largest pot but as luck would have it Val went into B&Q where they had a sale on and returned with two huge pots reduced to a fiver each!

Re-potting these is going to be a fun job.