Going Back to My Roots

The Landscaper has said he can start replacing our deck next Friday. He was hoping to start taking up the old one a couple of days before and told us to remove anything we didn’t want ending up in the tip!
All pots, troughs and garden ornaments duly removed, which revealed just how rotten the deck was.
It was so rotten that the as soon as all the pots were moved, the boards were basically just falling off the frame, they were so far gone. Decided we would give the man a helping hand (with a view to reducing the bill!) by ripping as much up as possible ourselves and placing it in a neat, easily accessible pile.
Didn’t take long for the cause of the rot to be revealed. There were just clumps of fern roots growing under the deck. Not only were they attacking the underneath of the boards, the action of the ferns growing through the gaps had caused the boards to lift and twist.
Did toy with the idea of leaving the roots for the man to dig up, but that might have put the bill up again, so I thought I’d see how deep they went. Fortunately, “not very” was the answer to that, and judicious application of fork and spade soon had most of them out. Except for this enormous slab, which needed a good half hour of sustained attack before it finally surrendered. I sincerely hope that before the new deck is laid, some sort of membrane will go down to prevent the ferns and weeds returning.
As I’ve also done a 5K run and a PT session today, I decided that was enough deck destruction for today. We can rip up the rest of the planks, and deal with any remaining roots, tomorrow. As long as we can fit it in around our customary Sunday coffee and stroll - and a gym session - that is!