Another Victory

Today has been cool, overcast and occasionally drizzly; but that has not deterred me from attempting and almost completing the relaying of the back garden path. It was visible in Friday's photographs of the arch before and after restaining; what was not visible was its decayed and untidy state, where what had once been clean gravel had been pressed down into the soil and soil brought up to the surface in patches (very often by feral pigeons pecking in the gravel for seed dropped from the bird feedery by the sparrows and other birds). I had been putting off attending to it because of the volume of gravel which would have had to be sieved (and the length of time this would have taken); in the event, however, I made the decision to just rake off the top layer, leave the rest embedded in the soil, and lay down the new path over the top. This did require some digging out, in order to remove what had built up over time and lower the level back to the original; stony soil was accordingly redistributed to selected parts of the growing beds. I then laid a weedproof membrane to ensure there would be no future mixing of gravel and soil, washed and replaced the brick stepping stones, and applied the reclaimed gravel to the membrane. Except that the quantity of gravel reclaimed, plus another bag of gravel already in stock, wasn't nearly enough to completely cover the membrane; we shall need to acquire at least two more from B & Q at Tottenham Hale. (And a third bag to apply to the slope on the front face of the pond. Is there no end to the gravel requirements of 15 Jansons Road?)

Below are some photographs of the path relaying in progress -- the two-trug system used to reclaim the gravel (shovel it into one, add water and stir vigorously to separate it from the soil and weed plants, then sieve the washed gravel into the second), with Wugster feetyoids visible for scale; a view of the path being dug up; the membrane as laid; the replaced brick stepping stones; and the regravelling in progress (reclaimed gravel at the garden end, new gravel at the house end). Lashing rain is promised for tommorow, so the regravelling may not be completed until next weekend.