It’s only when the digger arrives and starts churning things up do you realise what a mess there is going to be.  Again.  Just when we think we’ve cleaned up and sorted out the piles of soil I get another hairbrained idea which requires the heavy soil moving machine.

The landscaping job definitely falls into the category of putting right something that shouldn’t have happened and wouldn’t have happened if I’d had only one thing to think about when we were building a house.  Instead the final ground works happened without much close supervision and even little forethought on my part.

I am kicking myself now but no point worry about what I did or didn’t do.

Creating our building platform involved moving tons of soil around.  Finishing off the build area from a landscaping perspective should have included access paths down from the higher land to the lower land.  We built steps on one side of the house and behind the barn there was suposed to be a service path.  That’s the bit that got slightly overlooked.

As time has gone on it’s become increasingly important to get a proper path that we can wheel barrows up and down as well of course drive the beloved garden tractor down.  Instead we ended up with this!

Not exactly the easy pathway we had in mind.  Still, such mistakes can be rectified when you bring in a man with a digger.  Although I admit that I was slightly nervous that he would be wielding his digger arm close to the barn, water tank and perfectly secure and serviceable fencing.

These digger buckets are not to be messed with when fully attached and working at full tilt.

These diggers can cut like a knife through butter when in the hands of a skilled operator.

It’s amazing how a bumpy slope can be turned into a small and clearly defined path.

It’s like a work of art.

When you look closely you can see how clean the cutting is.  We thought at one point we’d need to put some retaining planks but the bank is well compacted and should be fine when it’s dried up and grassed over.

The downside of course of all this digging is you end up with another pile of soil to replace the pile that sat there for months but was recently used to fill up the new flower beds.

We will need to move it but not now.  It needs a bit of planning and more moving equipment.  This bucket and the shovel behind is not going to do the job today.

Anyway, the soil can’t be put into it’s rightful place until a certain young basset has decided whether it’s passed the sniff test.

After all the mud moving there is more stuff to be moved around.  The path base course.  More stuff that makes a mess.

But this is the foundation to path walking heaven.  No mud, no bumps, just a smooth, smooth ride.

All in all I’m thrilled with the results.  It means I’ll be able to cruise around with my garden tractor without fear of being stuck on the slopes.

More importantly, this feels like one step closer to our kitchen garden building and new growing adventures this spring.  Amazing how one small path seems like a highway to new possibilities.

I shall be trying out the new path this weekend as we’ve got replacement trees to plant this weekend.  Of the 150+ trees we planted last year a handful didn’t take so I reordered and they arrived by train and van this week.  Deep joy more hole digging!