This Week's Work

This is the bed I have been working on. Hard to tell but the moles have totally destroyed it and most of the plants that were in it have died.

So I removed the slate mulch to begin with. Not as easy as it sounds as a lot of it was buried under mole hill.

Next I removed the remaining plants, a couple of Geums and some Campanula.

Then I removed the top soil and put it in a couple of builders bags. Each one holds about a ton.

The sub soil I piled up at one end.

I raked the soil level. This gave me about 16 inches depth.

Next I put down a piece of weed suppressing membrane and put back some of the sub soil

Then the sub soil was moved onto the first piece of membrane and the next piece put down.

The sub soil was then spread out over the whole area and the membrane trimmed to size.

Finally the top soil was returned and the membrane properly buried. The next stage will be to plant it up, but that will have to wait until the soil has settled down. Underneath the paving slab is our water meter, so it has to be kept clear and have somewhere to put the slab while the meter is being read.

 

Looks like a job well done!
One question - how do you protect against the moles returning?

 

Good job! looks good soil too - looks like it will be a really nice corner when it planted up.
I like your cobbled path too!

 

The moles may return, but at least they cannot burrow into that section. They would have to begin in it. There is no access for them from other parts of the garden.
The cobbled path is original. We discovered it under a foot of leaf mould when we were clearing the garden. It may well have been put down as long ago as Tudor times as it leads to the foundations of a house which was on site until some time in the 1640's. OR, it may have been put there in Georgian times when the three now demolished cottages were built to get to a spring at the bottom of the garden.