Destoning and clearing

The afternoon of the morning of putting the water butt in (Thur 8th) I started on the destoning and clearing. I'd pulled out handfuls of stones while originally pulling the shrubs out, but there were still loads in the patch. I'd bought myself some buckets and a garden sieve which was perfect for the job - although it was taking ages.


As the soil is very clay-ey it clumps together, and if any of the soil in the sieve is at all moist, the sieving motion just turns it into tiny pellets, so I have to push my hand around once most is out to mush up what's left. Over the last few days I've been doing more of this, and it's definately been easier now that the soil is a little drier. In future sift for the stones once the soil had dried a little as this makes it a great deal easier.

When removing the cover sheet, the large rocks - which I'd handily used to hold the sheet down - I'd temporarily put on a bit of cardboard on the grass. The good is that I've now moved the rocks to a new (probably temporary) home under the arbour...


The bad is that in the meantime I've managed to leave a lovely patch of bare earth on the lawn.


The lawn needs a good going over at some point anyway, with weed killer and lawn stuff (technical term) so I'm not too worried about it for now... it's only April after all.

So after a good destoning of the quarter where I took the last shrub from I called it a good start.

Next turning (and more destoning)...