I’ve had one of those days where the benefit of hindsight has done nothing but frustrate me.  I could have saved myself huge amounts of effort and pain had I thought to do something at another time.

This is not all doom and gloom, in fact some great things happened today. I however don’t think I’ll be able to walk for a few days after today’s day in the garden.

A little over a year ago we started the construction of our garden.  This involved various types of large machinery to dig out flower borders and the salad/herb bed by the back door.  I remember talking to Jamie our landscape designer about whether we could actually do the bed digging by hand.  He looked at me with that “are your completely mad” look but politely explained the challenges that might bring given we were creating our garden from a compacted build platform of clay.

Anyway, today was the day I’d set aside to prepare the salad/herb bed for planting next weekend.  Labour Day weekend is the traditional planting time here in Kaitoke for planting your tomatoes out but we’ll start with some veges first next weekend.  In preparation for this momentous event I got our my trusty gardening books and much to my disappointment every one gives stern advice about preparing your soil.  So fully boned up on the techniques of single and double digging I set forth to the garden.

I can tell you just looking at the 12 metres square area to be dug made my heart sink.  You see with the benefit of hindsight I could, and arguably should, have fed and prepared my newly filled bed last year.  I could have hung around with Mike and his digger chucking in he necessary earth food as he went.  But no, I didn’t think of it and neither did they suggest it.

I did point this out to John who is back working with us on the steps this week. He was a bit sheepish about the fact but was positive and encouraging as he watched me labour on through the day.  I can’t blame anyone but myself so no excuses the job simply had to be done.

Here’s the pictures to prove my efforts

You’ll see there’s not much help from the bassets – they preferred to lay around or play!

After about 5 hours of back breaking digging I can now at least feel satisfied that my salad/herb bed soil has lots of lovely nutrients to enjoy.  Although all the books tell you to put in well rotted manure I couldn’t face the prospect of more piles of muck lying around and it would have required a huge amount of wheelbarrow effort to get it there.  So instead I used sheep pellets which are an easier to use alternative and lots of lovely blood and bone mix.

There is still a bit more raking, leveling and tilling the earth to give it the final preparation for planting but when I look out of the bedroom window and see my efforts I feel quite pleased with myself.  I just hope that the plants and seeds we put in next weekend appreciate my efforts.  Monty Don, Alan Titchmarsh, Geoff Hamilton and other gardening gurus may get a kick out of this double/single double digging lark.  But me, I’d rather have a dose of hindsight and get it done with a digger next time!

The landscapers were hard at work too. They completed the steps down to the chicken house and washing line and also the raised bed by the barn.  Both look really good although the trellis for the bed still has to be installed and the soil loaded up.

Now the steps are in we want to build a pergola over them but that’s going to have to wait till I’ve secured some more coaching clients to top up the coffers.  In the meantime we’ll probably spend ages wondering how we can build it ourselves and then when we’ve worked it out we’ll decide it’s a job for the professionals!

Oh, just in case you’re wondering.  I’m not, repeat not, filling up the barn bed.  This is definitely a job for MT.  My shovelling days are over for a while.  All I’m really fit for now is sitting on the veranda and supervising from my chair!