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she actually digs up the topsoil and throws it away at the end of the growing season.
You may be a witch hazel Hamamelis, but she is evidently a real nutter !Personally, I never usually put fresh leaf mould onto bare ground, on the basis that it provides cover for nasties like slugs and snails. If it were a dry hot summer I suppose I might risk it, on the basis that the numbers of said pests would not be so astronomical, to begin with at least.
My cunning plan for next year, acting on the assumption that we are going to have a scorcher of a summer, is that I have created two raised beds ten inches deep, and I will be filling them with a mixture of well rotted leaf mould and compost from last year, and some fresh, wet leaves from this autumn. The latter I will be digging into the soil at the base of the beds, with fresh grass cuttings, before adding the rest on top, with a top dressing of topsoil. That I hope (with the aid of watering pipes buried subsoil) will retain enough moisture to keep the ground temperature and humidity at a more optimal level. I'm thinking that beans in particular need as much moisture as possible.
Not looking forward to all the usual dragging of builders bags of leaf mould along the street, but I love the way it turns out in the end !
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