Hard work in small doses

 Well, I didn't just sit and do nothing yesterday after all.  I did all the veg and stuffing prep in the morning, I part cooked - well, mostly cooked actually - it all in the air fryer, other than the green veg.  Later on I cooked husband's chicken, then whilst it was resting I finished off cooking the veggies, stuffing and Yorkies.

Before eating though, I suggested to husband we go in the garden to do a bit more.  He lightly dug over half of the new flower bed, I helped by picking out roots and stones and breaking up lumps.  Then we covered it over with weed suppressant and rocks to hold it down, to prevent Betty from digging - she's a bugger for digging holes.  After a coffee break, we started to tackle the horrible conifer hedge.  I'm not keen on conifers anyway, this one here has been used to separate two parts of the garden I think.  It's not very high - only about 5 or 6 feet, but is almost as wide as it is tall and has completely overgrown the path on one side.  It's brown and dead in a lot of places, is straggly, untidy and downright ugly, so it's got to go - I can't be having that eyesore in view of the kitchen window all the time.  So we started cutting some of it down, using hand clippers, shears and a hand saw.  We've filled up our dumpy bag and have only thinned out about an eighth of the hedge so far - we'll be making many trips to the tip over the next couple of weeks.  That was enough for one day....husband would have done more, but I said little and often is the way to go, we don't want to overdo things and be laid up for days.  

This garden is going to take us a long time to adapt to how we want it, but that's fine.....we don't need to do it all at once.  It won't even get all done this year, we'll just do one section at a time.  The projects for this year are the veggies and strawberries (important as we eat so many veggies so we want them for health and money saving purposes), getting rid of the ugly hedge, and creating one flower bed - I must have flowers and colour.  Oh, and laying a small area of turf for Betty to lie on in the summer.  The veg beds are all filled with compost and ready for the veggies to go in when the soil warms up, danger of frost is past and the weather is warmer.  The new flower bed is half dug and prepared.  Another month or two should see the rest of the hedge disposed of, the flower bed finished and planted up, and the turf laid.

I've told husband he's not digging up the roots of the conifer hedge, it's too much for him, we'll just cut the stumps down to the ground.  There are plenty of large (rockery sized) stones in the garden, some edging paths and gravel beds....I think we might use some of those to disguise the area.  I'm sure the soil there will be very compacted and depleted of nutrients, plus being very acidic, and with all the conifer roots it won't be easy to grow anything there anyway, so I doubt we'll even try.  We could perhaps site a bench seat there....

Sue - yes heat does seem to help my back, I've got a wheat-filled bag (in the shape of a hot water bottle) that gets heated up in the microwave.....being soft it moulds itself to the shape of whatever body part I use it on.

I'll have to go to Specsavers tomorrow - not for an eye test (I'm not due for another year), but to see if they can mend my glasses.  A couple of days ago one of the arms snapped off my distance glasses - at first I thought the screw had come loose, but it wasn't that - the plastic of the arm up near the hinge has actually broken.  I do have another pair, but they're prescription sunglasses, so not very useful when it's dull and cloudy!