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| Before (left) and after (right) the first clean-up day |
Background
It was a mess of decades of yard waste and neglect. There were layers to excavate through. Collapsed chicken coops, a flagstone path, a void which led us to discover where a wall had been repaired, an entire chair, and so, so much yard waste. This is was our starting point for the garden.
Goal
This clean-up was multistage.
1. Assess the state of things.
2. Kill any trees (especially the one that pushed the south wall out).
3. Sort the contents into the categories accepted by the déchetterie.
4. Make as many trips to the déchetterie as needed.
Resources
Result
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| A veritable jungle. Attempting to look down over the ivy on the wall into the garden. July 2018. |
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| The layers and layers of yard waste. July 2018. |
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| Leaning very far over the neighbor's wall, this was the view looking south. July 2018. |
At purchase, the previous owner (and winter) did a little more to clean up:
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| Day 1 of ownership, I hiked to the north end of the garden. January 2019. |
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| You thought I was joking about that chair, didn't you. Sadly, it was not recoverable. It had begun to rot. January 2019. |
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| The chair was added to my collection of strange things whic had included a rake, some down spout, and a fire extinguisher. January 2019. |
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| A few hours into the day. |
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| End of the first clean up day. It looked so different. |
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| The difference a little sorting makes. Before (left) and after (right) our first big cleanup day. |
This was not quite the end of step 1, but it was a good first start. As we continued to dig through the layers and excavate, we found what was probably the entryway to the secret door (a poured concrete slab) under a few inches of dirt and a few feet of concrete block rubble that had been the south wall. As I had been working in the garden repairing some masonry, I asked J to make something that would screen me from view as I worked (the neighbours were/are intensely curious about what is going on).
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| What a dear, he wove a fence out of the nemesis tree's branches. March/April 2019. |
From there on out, it was days and days (spread out over months) of digging, raking, and sorting to fill the three trash cans I had purchased. One for unrecyclable (trash) items, one for scrap metal (of which there was a lot), and one was to start a compost bin.
Step 2 took a long time. There were four trees in the garden, and they were all of the nemesis tree type, that is to say, Ash trees. Eventually, all four were dug up and removed down to their roots. It took until early in 2020 before we were able to get the last one out.
Steps 3 & 4 are ongoing as we continue to develop the garden space according to our plan.
