Retirement notes - Day 1
- 2 minsThis summer continues the tradition of splitting ‘retirement’ into small chunks throughout life. It’s a concept I picked up from The Four-Hour Work Week after a mentor put it into my hands many years ago. To that end, the next four months (for the most part) are work free to allow for decompression before and prep for an expected career twist later in the year.
In all honesty, no-one is expecting me to not do what others might call work. That’s just the way life tends to work out. But today. Right now. It’s pottering time. The first day of the most recent break was a huge success.
Veg Beds
The area for the next three veg beds has been cleared, ready for bed placement and planting. This area had been left to go to ruin in recent years. As a result, a nasty infestation of a creeping vine had taken hold, which has spread to other areas of the garden. Luckily it’s not Japanese knotweed.
Pulling up as much of the root system as possible is the short-term solution. However, once the food growing season is over, I predict a bunch of mini cane teepees will be used to encourage them to grow up before spraying them with something nasty to end the infestation. Time will tell.
The Decking
The decking has been cleared back to assess any damage. Some of the boards have rotten, where either something has been sat in one place for many years or piles of mud left on the edges after a half-hearted attempt at cleaning it down in years gone by. The coming days will see it being cleaned back and properly inspected ahead of repairs.
In the evening, when you want to sit around and maybe have a BBQ, the only part of our existing garden that receives sunlight is heavily congested with veg beds, sheds, greenhouses and other detritus a gardener might deem worth having around. Consequently, there’s only a little room to do anything but sit down. The deck is bathed with the sun at this time.
We don’t know if the hot tub works as yet. That’s something to investigate another day!
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