Three bags full!

Over the last few months I've been cutting down self-sown saplings, pulling up ivy, pruning hazel and acquiring a large heap of other prunings and branches. I did try having a bonfire in my dustbin incinerator last year, but the smoke drifted down the road and into McCaig's Tower, so I thought I'd better not repeat that exercise!

Then a friend messaged me to ask if I would visit her to give advice on remodelling her garden. It's always rather difficult charging my usual rate for a friend, so when she happened to mention that she had been driving to the dump with her small trailer to get rid of prunings, we did a deal - I'll come to her garden as many times as it takes to sort out what she wants to do, if she would come to my garden as many times as it takes to take all my prunings to the dump. Two problems solved in one go!

So Mrs M and I spent some time this afternoon chopping all the branches into small pieces and filling three bulk bags, well trodden down. Then it was time to come in for a tea-break! One more bag to go, as I have another hazel to cut down, but I'll do that over the weekend. I'm just trying to make space to plant more of my special shrubs on the bank - I'll still have three sizeable hazels left!