There's always something to do on the smallholding, it never ends. But as well as pushing forward and expanding infrastructure, it's incredible how much just general day to day maintenance adds up. Take your eye off an area for any length of time and when you turn back it can be unrecognisable.
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| The kids were less than excited to help... |
One area that this has been true is the front garden and drive.
We use it to park our vehicles everyday, but other than that we all tend to ignore it. But when we first made the drive bigger (back in 2012) we could easily park 3 cars in a row on it. Lately we can only park two.
The brambles have grown up the shed and started spreading out into the drive. My wife says that she has snagged so many tights this year it's costing a fortune. I decided it was time to reclaim it back.
I started with the hedge trimmer and cordless chainsaw, hacking my way into the middle of it. Cutting down the bigger branches in the middle. It wasn't just brambles, there was an ash seedling and anther young tree in there holding it all up.
But it was all tied up and hard to move, so I then moved up the equipment scale - time to break out the digger!
It meant I could pull the brambles away from the shed. It was still tricky to move the pile I had created. In the end I started to move it about with the bucket on the digger, and it balled up and stayed together. I then rolled it down the field like a giant snowball! It worked so well, my eldest couldn't quite believe it when she saw it.
So now we have the three easy parking spaces again! It was a lot of work and my arms and hands are scratched to pieces. Still lots more to do out here. One day I'd like to make a proper garage out of the tin sheds and we've just had fibre broadband brought into the drive and I need to duct it all the way to the house. I'd like to make the front garden very low maintenance when I do this, it's south facing so maybe just a couple of peach trees and a rosemary hedge!
Do you have an area of your property that need tackling with some serious maintenance?
Reclaimed space is always a treasure. Great job, all!
ReplyDeleteI work on our woods each fall/winter. It looks loads better than it has in years, but no doubt I'll be out there again this season.
Blessings...
Every year it seems I have to fight an area back into submission. I think I'd be better if I managed to keep on top of jobs a bit better. This winter I have a few areas I want to tackle and might try the little and often approach instead.
DeleteThere is always a project to tackle as you say. Every early spring, my brother and I will do rounds throughout all the farm tracts of land cutting out locust sprouts (with tire flattening thorns) and other invasive plants that will do damage if left unchecked. It takes about a week to do every year. Fortunately though we have a Polaris Ranger with a box on the back so we can load if full of the necessary power equipment and drive along between issues we tackle.
ReplyDeleteIs that black locust? I hear it's supposed to make the best fence posts going. I see some over here have been planting it but I wonder about how it might spread. Sounds like you and your brother have the right idea, you don't have to change many tyres to know that it would soon cost you money! How much land do you operate on and keep in check?
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