Rock-raking is the new editing.

Friends who follow me on Twitter (@alison_morton)  have been hearing about my rock-raking in recent days. Let me explain. We live on top of a chalk cliff. The view is magnificent, but the soil is crap. That’s a bit harsh. The soil is fertile, fine, and the weeds grow as if on Viagra. But there was a maximum of 20cms (8 inches) in ‘best’ part of the garden. Mostly, it was about 12cm (5 inches).

So enter the rotavator…

We now have 30 cms (12 inches) to play with, but it’s full of chalk rocks (toes included at lower edge of  photo for scale):

 

To get something like this, the rocks have to go.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rock-raking is hard, monotonous work, but as the sun warms your back and a light breeze plays the leaves, your brain is free to wander off on plot points, characterisation, scenes.

Creating a garden from an open area of plain green is like writing a novel. Rock-raking is like editing and refining once you’ve got a surface to work with.

(To be continued)

 

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