Starting on the grounds

This afternoon I dug over a small area at the front of the waste land outside - turning the sod, breaking it up, levelling it out  a bit, pulling out stones which would interact poorly with a lawn mower and so on. 

Contrary to my expectations (from conversations with a neighbour who has done their landscaping and from the excavation leavings around the house) of clay and stones it is actually quite good soil; and full of wormy bois doing what wormy bois do with soil.

Hopefully that means the excavation leavings, while still fuller of stones, will just be a layer easily moved and mixed in.

 This area was previously orchards, but I'd figured all the good soil must have been carted away when development began, because pesticide residues (as noted on the LIM). Very glad to find some of it remains, not because I am /any/ sort of gardener myself but on general principles.