This story about life in lockdown comes from Mairi a member of All Saints, Bearsden.
She writes:
Those who join me in happier times with the All Saints gardening are probably all too familiar with my complaints about our garden at Ardbeg, that its best crop has always been stones. I swear they grow here like marrows and potatoes thrive in more conventional plots!
Like many of us blessed with our own green spaces at the moment, I have been looking for a project to get exercise and take advantage of the glorious weather. As our council, like most others, has stopped collecting garden waste, it has suddenly become much more necessary to think ‘home composting’. Normally we regard our large lawns as a great boon – the perfect excuse to ride round and round on the tractor mower, and the bins provided are just about sufficient to keep up with the cuttings. When you have to find a way to dispose of the grass throughout the season without taking it off the premises, you need to be thinking in terms of an awful lot of compost.
I found a reasonable spot under the trees at the top of the garden and started to dig. My idea was to start with a hole about a foot deep and six feet square. I then intended to build a drystone wall to the garden side to screen the heap from our favourite sitting out area. For the back and sides of the heap, I would use earth banks with more stones in their facings, not forgetting to leave an opening in the corner so the heap can actually be fed. This way the heap should have a considerably greater potential height, while still hiding behind (hopefully) attractive stonework. About half the stones came from the hole I dug to start the project, and the rest were in the pile left over after creating the patio and stone table at the top of the garden a few years ago. The wall is not the most beautiful example of drystone you will ever see, but it is reasonably stable. The stony banks around the sides and back will probably settle a bit and will certainly get grown over with weeds, but who cares? It’s a compost heap!
And how many people have what looks like a small broch at the end of their garden?
Tempted to give composting at home a try – here’s a handy guide from Zero Waste Scotland.
If you have a story about your experiences of lockdown and how God is moving in your life, we would love to hear it – please email digitalmissioner@glasgow.anglican.org
