At the front of my house, facing west, I have a lovely mulberry tree. Underneath, there’s gravel and plastic sheeting – which doesn’t allow anything useful to grow (not even edible weeds), and which spreads sharp stones all over the paths, making shoes a necessity. I’m done with it! I want a nice mulberry guild in my front garden, and the first step to making that happen is to get rid of the stones… and uncovering the dirt underneath.
It’s no surprise, but still unfortunate, that there isn’t any soil under the black plastic. What’s there is compacted, hard dirt, with little life visible. But at least that gives me a clear course of action – soil-building! Once I’ve got rid of all the stones and the plastic, I’ll get compost and straw over the lot and let that seep in for a season – and then I can start planting.
I should add that this part of the garden has never been fertile. The previous owners had some huge water-hungry palms planted here, which sucked up all the moisture and left everyone else thirsty – and ultimately dead. So this project will be bringing life back into an area that’s been close to dead for the best part of thirty years. And that excites me. I’ll let you know how I go!
