The Wall

This is the section of the wall in the garden on which I am working. You can see the stumps where the bush was cut down and you can also see where the branches have come bursting their way through the wall. It's even worse on the other side. What I'm currently working on is clearing the top of the wall. The bush has been growing there for so long, it has created its own layer of soil, which is filled with hair roots and then as you dig down, thicker roots.

This layer of soil and roots was at least a foot deep. I've cleared it from the top of the two big rocks in the middle of the picture, and I have cleared a gap to the surface of the piece of slate on the right hand side. Unfortunately, these fine roots have grown in between the layers of slate and split them into ever smaller pieces, which I'm pulling out with the roots as well as crumbling mortar and wire netting.

You can also see how much the wall is bowing in this shot. I'm pretty sure it's only the main trunk on the other side which is stopping it falling down the ten foot drop into next door's garden. It still feels pretty solid, but there are an awful lot of loose stones in there. It's going to take a fair bit of work to sort it out.