The mulch was delivered around 9AM and shortly after that we began working on the garden. We only had a few more buckets of soil to shovel on one side of the garden and then we got to work laying out the cardboard. I don’t remember when I started saving up cardboard for this project but it might have been last Summer after we installed new fence panels in the back garden. Either way, we’d held on to loads of cardboard boxes and kept them tucked away in the attic so I’m glad to see we finally got around to using them! We covered one side of the front garden with cardboard boxes and we only have a couple more boxes left for the other side so we may need to get some more cardboard before we can call this project complete.

Once we had laid the cardboard, Alex filled the wheelbarrow with mulch while I took care spreading it over top of the cardboard. The bulk bag held about a ton of mulch when it was delivered and by the time one side of the garden was covered the bag only had about a quarter remaining. We might need to order another bag of mulch to finish the job but first we have to finish digging and leveling the ground so we may need to wait to get more mulch anyway.

Still, it feels really good to see one side of the garden looking how it’s supposed to look! Multiple times when we were digging away, our neighbours came over to see what we were doing and compliment our hard work. We took a “break” to load up the car with some of the bags of soil and take them to the dump. Turns out each bag weighed 100lbs and we had like 10 in our car! No wonder Alex and I were struggling to lift the bags on our own!!

After the dump we treated ourselves to some frozen lemonade and a quick stop at B&Q to check out the outdoor plant sale. We snagged a couple of medium-sized hebes and a euonymous, as well as an extra plastic bucket for our diy stash, then it was back home and back to work. Alex worked on digging and leveling while I dug through the cardboard and mulch to plant the new plants and the rose I bought last week.

There are still plenty of weeds to pull in the borders and of course there’s the other side that needs leveling and cardboard before we can put down the mulch, but it feels like we’ve accomplished a lot in such a short amount of time! I’m feeling really good about the decision to go for mulch instead of stones, too. I just can’t imagine how difficult it would have been to shovel and move a bunch of rocks.

Tomorrow I’d like to work a bit more on the borders at least and I know Alex wants to give the kitchen and laundry his full attention. My next big goal is to finish off the other side by next Friday when we have our neighbourhood Jubilee picnic and I reckon we can do it just fine!