From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

beanielou

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81995361#Comment_81995361

It’s not. One of my neighbours did this a few years ago in the front garden!

Cheery_Daff

I am a VERY big fan of the 'no dig' method of gardening - starting with cardboard and then a layer of whatever mulch you can get your hands on - I've used hay (because I have a massive pile of it), compost from the garden compost heap, grass cuttings, anything that will rot down and keep the light out. Cardboard is the most important (I just bunged hay over most of my veg patch this year and it's full of dandelions - except where I put cardboard first...)

Potatoes are great too- not a short term solution but they'll break down the soil for you.

It's all effort though. No dig is still effort, it's just not digging effort. Such is gardening life unfortunately!

Cheery_Daff

Apologies if you already know this, but here's a reasonable no dig intro

https://hahuorganics.com/no-dig-gardening-for-small-urban-gardens/

Greying_Pilgrim

Thanks Cheery - but this isn't gardening as such - well, not to grow veggies. This is trying to get the back lawn/garden on a more even keel. At the moment, our garden is very, very reminscent of a downhill skiing 'moguls' course, as seen in the winter olympics this year ⛷️ Or a bmx course, in miniature if you like. If we were just wanting to have a garden, and the ground was flat to start with, but hard from the clay, then the no-dig option is fine. But I'm currently digging, and moving soil, to get to a vaguely level playing field.

Greying X

Cheery_Daff

Aha, I see. Can't help you then unfortunately, my own is a similar BMX style situation, not helped by our extensive mole population!

greenbee

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81995983#Comment_81995983

Send your moles to GP. They may need hard hats and drills, but they’d solve her problem!

thriftmonster

I have had success with relocating moles using children's windmills. The coloured ones that spin round -always remind me of the seaside. If you push them into the mound, the spinning apparently vibrates down the tunnel and they abandon that bit. Not sure how scientific it is but it did work for me and I felt it was kinder than other methods. Plus they look pretty

Greying_Pilgrim

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81996423#Comment_81996423

Ha ha - I think I would still prefer piggly wigglys 😁 They would get fat on all the acorns that the squirrels have buried - and clearly forgotten about over the years 😁 Interestingly, in the really, really clay bits, there are plenty of worms, those big ones with the flat 'tail' sections. They leave big holes, but they don't seem to be breaking up the clay that much. Mind, it's also the physical building debris that I'm coming across too - bricks, half bricks, brieze blocks, off cuts of power cabling (like you'd put in for an oven socket - not anything more substantial ⚡).

LG found a small piece of clay pipe stem last night, so that and the pottery have maintained their interest.

Wet start with us today. I have shopping to do.

We had vegetable and bean soup last night. I got my inspiration from watching an episode of family freedom on utood. I think the family are vegan. Anyway, not necessarily a series for me to follow, but I watched one episode where the mum, dad and No. 2 son had challenged each other to cook a meal each, for £5 for 3 portions. The mum had got lunch and did soup, She used frozen veg and partially blitzed her soup - which prompted me to do similar (different frozen veg tho - I think hers was from FF). So I used an onion, some celery, some garlic and potatoes, and then put in some water, a stock cube, some of the Stam. St mixed veg and cooked in the PrC and then partially blitzed. I then put in 2 tins of cannellini beans, some greek seasoning, salt and pepper. It made a nice soup and mine cost far less than £5. There was some left over. Yoghurt and banana for pud.

Not too sure what the weather will be like come tea time - rain is forecast, and cooler temps, so perhaps something cooked rather than salad-y.

Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Back from shopping. No green boxes today. No YS'd things.

I did go to MrAl for the S6 offer on asparagus, but you had to dig through the box to find packets with more than 4 (fat) spears in. I must have been stood next to an MSE'r as they commented on each spear being 25p…. Interestingly, when I got to MrS, they had 100g packs of asparagus (£1.75 tho), and although they were 'all' thin (sprue?) asparagus, their packets just looked fuller than the MrAl ones. When I got home, I weighed the MrAl packs - both 98g………..🤨

Food expenditure was £36.63 across MrAl, MrL, MrS and hB, and I spent £3.84 on non-food. I have updated the GC thread and my siggie figgies.

It seemed alot quieter across the supermarkets today. Perhaps it was just one of those things, or perhaps everyone's on their hols.

Greying X

kayannie

No building rubble in our garden, but lots & lots of stones - some are small but others are huge. After we moved here, my OH cleared a lot of shrubs to make a veg patch. As it was on a slope, he built a retaining wall from large stones dug up. I'm not exaggerating, the wall is 2 ft high & at least 10 yards long. The soil in the garden has to be sieved before anything can be planted.

It's quite exciting, uncovering old artefacts. We haven't yet found any cannon balls! (We're not far from a castle!).

KA x