Wednesday 19th November

Another lovely sunshiny day - 12 degrees. We both went down today. Peter used the chain saw to cut the top off the compost bin and planned to fill in the spaces at the sides with the bits he chopped off. However .... best laid plans and all that. I cut down the nettles and blackberries from behind the compost bin to make it easier for him to work.

I put some stones in the bottom of the raised bed, replaced the plastic over the stones and put in the rest of the ericaceous compost. There's a huge pile of stones near the compost bin, along with a pile of old tyres, plastic containers, bricks, wood etc - just a general dumping ground really. I'm sure most of it will come in handy for something!!! We started moving the bonfire heap to another place, so it would leave some clear space for the fruit trees to be planted. Getting the fire going was tough but there was plenty of wood lying around to build a good base. It was a bit like bonfire night in the 'olden days'. Eventually we had a good blaze going and managed to get rid of of most of the pile despite most of it being very soggy. The trees are being delivered tomorrow at 8.15am so Peter dug three holes ready to put them in. It was surprisingly easy, and the soil seems in good condition despite the amount of weeds. We cleared a lot more debris from around the plot and cut back some more of the hedge. All this went on the fire. There's still a lot more clearing to do. In the end we didn't have time to do any more to the compost bin. There's always another day.