Thyme Bed

One of the reasons for visiting Rachel and Philip is that they've been planning to lift some of their patio and make a small lawn, of either chamomile or thyme, but have been struggling to make time. The patio's mostly rectangular slabs, but there's a circle set into it, about 2.5m in diameter, with three rings of slabs.

Using a crowbar, we managed to lift the centre slab, and the next ring of slabs, this morning before going to their church. It was considerably quicker than their previous method of wedging a screwdriver under, because of the strength and length of the crowbar. We next used a sledgehammer to break apart the mortar fixing the slabs down, before using the pick-axe to get out the mortar, and the hardcore from below. Rachel riddled the hardcore, so we could put the stones back in to help with drainage, and we dug the bed down to the depth of the clay subsoil. Refilling with stones and topsoil, we had a 6-foot circular bed by mid-afternoon: it's another example of the right tools making the job easy, as the lack of crowbar, sledgehammer, and pickaxe were what was making it insurmountable.

We planted it up with twelve thyme plants: three each of four varieties (pink, purple, white, and lemon, I think they were), and hopefully when we go back in a few weeks (for David's wedding), it'll be starting to knit together.