Woodn't it be nice?

Spring is definitely in the air. The mornings and evenings are getting lighter, the dawn chorus is up and running (the noisy little swine), and it's warm enough to spend a couple of hours in the garden with risking frostbite. That means, of course, it's time to start gardening again. Last year was all about wreaking death and destruction on the various weeds (and weed-resembling plants) -- and I see no reason to change just yet. Task No. 1 on the list? Get rid of the ENORMOUS tree root that has been squatting malevolently in my border. Just look at it:



And let's zoom in on the tape measure.



That's right -- 31 inches across. This is a sizeable lump of wood.

Our neighbour had advised covering it over to dry out, then setting fire to it. Tempting though that option was, it seemed unlikely to succeed. First up, securing a tarp over all the new saplings, ivy, and fungus around it was no easy task. Secondly, it's actually quite hard to get this sort of lump of wood to burn, as my recent failure with our woodburner demonstrates. No, it was time to call in the experts. Luckily, our local directory had an ad for the Romsey Stump Grinder -- I like the sort of business that is very clear about what it does. No "Bringing visionary technology to apply to your forestry-related challenges" rubbish. Just "stump grinder" -- nice! He arrived with a couple of lads and a large, petrol-driven grinding machine, took off an enormous piece of root with chainsaws, and then proceeded to grind the remainder into oblivion. Or rather, a mountain of wood chips. This was what it looked like at the halfway mark.



Our vain hope was that it would prove to be rotten within, but that was not the case. Tea and these fantastic biscuits were consumed, and grinding resumed. We ended up with this:



Luckily, the lads loaded the vast majority of this heap into a flat-bed truck for disposal elsewhere; I have enough to level off the ground and use as a temporary mulch.

Next stop: clearing the rest of this border. Time to research chainsaws.