Global Catastrophes Month

11th September, 2017

Typhoons and Hurricanes
All over the world there are all sorts of natural disasters taking place and its hard to equate it with our rainfall this year, which has been high but not catastrophic. Global warming is undoubtedly having an influence – the polar ice cap is melting at a rate unseen before – but politicians, don't make me mention the T word, don't want to acknowledge what the climate experts have been saying for the last few decades. *On finding out that future hurricane names will include my first name, I have been living with the moniker 'Mummy Hurricane'!

After a morning of little bits including juicing some apples, and fighting with random bramble spurs,
I am hunkered down, not watching the film with the family because I don't like watching films over again, but in front of my computer to relate the sad fact that my garden has suffered from three weeks of neglect and the morning just laid bare the fact of my inability to do the things I wrote of so glibly yesterday. I don't have the inclination today to weed, weed, weed or hack, hack, hack, nor the energy to dig much more than a sandcastle - I'd probably manage a few teaspoonsful before getting bored.

However, the more it rains, the more I realise I need to have a plan, and after a pleasant sunny morning, the downpour that took us to the film also pushed me to the realisation that we need to start to think creatively and cheaply for stopping the water from wrecking our future plans and future climate changes in our own little ecocentre.

I desperately need to have a scheme of work, and have priorities for things that will make the garden work for the future, such as:
1 - hire a green skip and take down excess tree stumps, weeds, shrubs and bushes that we don't want
2 - clear excess stuff from old decrepit sheds so that they can be destroyed
3 - work out drainage options and get large quantities of gravel
4 - remove areas of old concrete and take down and dispose of barbecue, garden walls that are crumbling and concrete of broken compost bin
5 - look at recycling some garden slabs and make a new seating area
6 - establish new compost area.

The list isn't complete, or including any 'nice' stuff like new plants or trellises or (do I dare say it?) home offices, or repairing the book shed, and I feel fatigued... Each of those things will take planning, resources and diggers!

PS: Next post will have pretty pictures and a review of something nice I think