A work in progress

W put lots of effort into building the raised beds, and we have had some lovely veggies from them over the last couple of years. 

But the present project is to clear all the grass and weeds from around them, put down weed suppressing membrane, and then coco shells - we chose coco shells because they are supposed to discourage cats from using the area as a toilet - but experience suggests that was a forlorn hope, unfortunately.

Meanwhile, the beans and peas are germinating in the polytunnel.

We're off on holiday in just over a week - W is in a quandary as to whether to plant the stuff out before, or wait till after we get back.

I have been limited in what I could do to help for some months now.  Kneeling or squatting is not an option - all weeding is done by bending the back - fortunately this has never been a problem for me.  It's certainly good for stretching the hamstrings.  I have managed to do a lot of the weeding for this project.

We have been trying to find someone to help in the garden for a few hours each week.  But we seem to keep running into problems.  We had one chap for a while, who when he came, worked very hard and was very helpful, but who kept letting us down with minimal communication.  He's now given up completely, so we looked around for someone else.  There was an advert on the local facebook page, so W contacted him.  He was supposed to come at lunchtime today, to look at the job and meet us.  But he didn't turn up!  When messaged to ask him "where are you?" - "oh, this morning's job has overrun, can I come tomorrow?".  "Well, actually, no, tomorrow is not any good" because we waited in for him today, and tomorrow we want to go out for a walk.  No further response since then.  Oh dear - back to the drawing board.