spider's Journal

The outdoor gym

backbreaking digging, but healthier for it

I was going to join a gym this year, but to be honest, there is no better workout than a couple of minutes spent in the garden. no matter what task you take on in the garden, be it weeding, digging, planting or even moving the lawn, you are moving and streching muscles, lifting weight, pushing loads, bending and stretching. I have decided not to join the gym, but to spend the money on improvements in the garden and exercise out in the fresh air as i pot about the garden. As all of you know and i have often read in your journals, there does be tired muscles, sore backs after a day in the garden, but a lot of tired and contented fit gardeners.

a slight improvement

a better look

This is part of the new fence and gate going up around the garden, and i have to say i am well pleased with the new look. The panels on the fence can be bought cut to size for 1.70cents a piece and are 4 ft in height. However I bought 4x1 in my local hire centre, 16 ft long for E3.50 a piece. With the use of a jigsaw I get 4 panels from each length, giving me a hugh saving on the job.

Improving the look

an eyesore

I suppose we are living here about ten years now, and when i started to take an interest in the garden, I made some rough structures and planted in them or around them. These structures will be shown to you as i now start to tackle some of these projects and put them right once and for all. money was scarce when I made my plans so I improvised and used fence poles, 3x2 and chicken wire. Also it gave time to see whether an idea worked in a certain way and it was easily removed if it did not. The first structure to be improved is the veg garden. As you can see from the photo, it is surrounded by a mesh fence, and to be honest it has seen better days. Also the steel mash structure you see are the dog pens and there is a width of grass about the width of the mower between doth fences.

I am going to widen out the garden to the dog pen, build 24ft of cold frames along the dog pen, using scaffolding planks I have bought for 3 euro apiece. Then I am going to put a new wooden fence and gate up around the veg garden.