Sunday 31 October 2010

improving productivity!

My previous post set out a grand vision of where we hope to be in a couple of years.

In the meantime, the rhythm of the seasons beats as we enter 'the fall' and the prosaic work of the garden must be done! Leaves provide vital organic matter for the soil: it's that time of year when acquisitive gardeners barrow them to gardens.


A lot of time is taken travelling backwards and forwards during this activity. Surely this can be done more efficiently?

It can - and here's my patent way of getting even more into each barrow.

Nearly seventy shovel fulls can be packed into my mesh cylinder. A wire is hooked around its waist to keep the shape and when full it is tied to the barrow for its journey to the allotment. Good old baler twine!

The leaves (even when packed in tight) have little weight and so the increased load is not too difficult to push. Three or four wheelbarrow loads are now reduced to a single journey.

The following post will show 'the fruits of my labours'.

3 comments:

Lisa said...

Rob,
My gardening companion (aka husband Tim) spent considerable time this afternoon snagging many bags of leaves in the neighborhood and putting them 'down the slope' on our future woodland garden.

So we're with your approach totally. It's surprising how many folks squander their leaves, not to mention their neighbors!

Lisa

Rob said...

What a waste!
Rob

Lisa said...

Hmm, you two clearly have a lot in common, but I agree!

We definitely want to keep as many leaves as we can on our sites, and snag more, too.