Side of the house

2006/NOV/06

Vicious weeds minutes before their death

A couple of weeds have dared to show themselves amongst the pebbles near the edge of the buried weed matting. First sign of identifiable life forms along the side of the house since the work finished in June (not including slightly inebriated partygoers and BBQ'ers etc). Still it took all of 3 minutes to remove the weeds, so glad I did the hard yards earlier in the year.

2006/SEP/20

Still perfect! I'm a genius

2006/JUN/19

Rainy season has arrived and massive weed growth everywhere... except along the side of the house! A temporary tactical victory for opposable thumbs. The weed matting and pebble structure is working perfectly (so far!). It took only 5 minutes to pull out the few weeds able to handle such a sterile environment. Clovers for the most part, growing from under the edges of the matting. I bought 6 more bags of pebble to spread over some areas that seemed to be a bit thin. Although the matting has been laid on what is mostly clay, there has still been some subsidence. In a month or so I'll probably need another half dozen bags of pebble, but otherwise this is too easy. Looks like a similar solution for the back garden would work, but for cost reasons I wouldn't want to use so much pebble there.

2006/MAY/01

Digging away
2006/APR/27 Digging done
2006/MAY/01
Have finished the work on the pathway along the side of the house and am kicking back with a nice cold Duvel in the garden. Gotta love this furniture. Its only a meter wide and about 10 meters long, but the side gap is the only way to get from the front of the house to the rear garden without taking shoes off and going through the house. I should know better, but I'm still amazed by how fast the weeds grow here. In April last year Dad and I cleared this strip to soil, and by August the unattended weeds were as high as the fence to the left of the pictures. When my busy summer travel schedule ended, I had to cut my way through. Summer this and every other year is unlikely to be any different, so I figured we needed some kind of chemical free weed control solution.

I dug out a 5-10cm deep strip of soil, in most cases hitting clay, laid the weed matting, replaced the "stepping stones", and then covered the matting with a 4 color pebble layer. There were a few obstacles. I didn't check to confirm what each of the 3 square access holes and 3 small plastic access things are for, but ensured they remained accessible. The aircon unit towards the front of the house also provided a bit of a challenge. All done though, and gratifyingly Dad "approves" the work.

If all goes to plan, there should be no weeds except a few along the edges or some easily removed from the pebbles. If all does not go to plan, the heavy rainfall we get in Okazaki will not drain through the matting (or along the edges) quickly enough and I'll have a very different problem. This year's approaching rainy season should answer the question. I should be able to drill some additional holes in the matting easily enough. Installing a rubble drain will probably be the worse case scenario. Have a new found respect for the work involved in the rubble drain Dad dug years ago.

The total amount of soil and stone shifted was about 2 cubic meters which I transferred to the vegetable garden (except the stones - all of which I've managed to recycle). I haven't spread this soil yet but maybe it can be part of a temporary solution to the problem of where to put the rest of the spring weeding/cutting - since the wormery is nearly full aready.

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