In the back garden there was a crazy paving pathway along the fence and in front of the big boy tree stumps. This needed to be removed so we can have more area to plant our vegetables. 

So armed with a spade and a break in the weather, I set to the task of lifting the crazy paving using the spade to lever up the flags, we put them to the side, removing the rubble and broken off cement to our ever expanding waste pile (to be used at a later date for a hard core base).

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After a few hours, and a lot of sweat, a few breaks along the way, it was finally all up.

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Once rested (an boy did I need it) we then cleaned the broken flags, broke them into smaller pieces to build circular raised beds for our small fruit trees to go into. (I know they’re not perfectly circular or level and I’m no brickie) but they’ll suffice for what we need them to do. (Reusing the broken flags to save money, rather than buy the expensive, decretive bricks from the local DIY store).

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At this point, we still need to build two more of the circular raised beds as we’re planning on having four different fruit trees to start with Apple, Pear, Plum and Cherry. These we will buy at the local garden centre.

We are however trying our luck in using the stones from Kiera’s lovely plum pie (see an older post for that) and the pips from Apples and Pears, stones from Cherries and a Nectarine to see if we can propagate seedlings. We’ll keep you all appraised on how we get on with that, fingers crossed.

When we have finished the stone work and have the four circular raised beds, I think the next step will be the fence at the front of the house, and the building/putting together of the poly-tunnel greenhouse we have. Again these will be future posts.

I would like to say, as this is my first attempt at writing a post, that we appreciate your patience with this site and our endeavours (however mundane and basic they are). I would also like to thank you for your support and advice (if you have any that will make our tasks easier); this is all a learning curve for us both to attain the skills and knowledge we need to achieve our dream of living off-grid.

Please like, comment (please be kind, constructive criticism and advice appreciated), share with your friends and invite your friends to join us in our progress, the more people that are with us, the more we can get insights and advice.

If there is anything we could possibly help you with, don’t hesitate to ask.

Thanks for reading

Tony and Kiera