When your daughter requests you to help clear a garden, how
can you refuse? However, this was no ordinary garden and it was not even her
garden.
My daughter is Chair of Hackney Women’s Night Shelter and
they have taken on a house in Hackney to provide shelter for some 9 women and
are in the process of decorating and getting it ready for occupying this month.
The house has a fair size back garden full of mature planting and is somewhat neglected
and overgrown. So, they wanted it tiding up and cleared so all could enjoy it
and its sanctuary.
I enrolled my allotment buddy and neighbour Anna and
together we went last week to visit the house, its garden and size up the job.
We decided a one day blitz would do it and so yesterday we went armed with tree
loppers, rachet extending secateurs, hand secateurs, saws, trowels, and a big
roll of heavy-duty black bags.
Strange but viewing a garden and starting to work one are
two different experiences. When you view it nothing seems a problem? Pollard
that tree, reshape those bushes, cut back that under growth, provide light to
the pond, but you forget the branches all need to be chopped up and bagged, the
cuttings need bagging and that you will spend more time bagging than
pollarding.
Anna started at the back on the bushes whilst I got the saw
to some serious overgrown bushes hanging over the pond. The fishes put on the
shades as it must have been a shock for them to see bright sunlight, even if it
were October, but they soon dived to the bottom as the debris started to
disturb their peace.
The other thing you forget is that you see the branch you
want to remove, but once removed, you see another half dozen others that now have
to go.
The garden is very balanced with two of everything. Like a
Noah’s ark of planting. At the back two large sycamore trees on either side.
Then there are two straight yews and inside these two heavily laden apple trees
with two bushes under them. At the other end there are two large trees and
inside them two large rose bushes.
The lawn needs attention, but not today and it looks like
the local foxes have been trying to do some tiding up of their own and they
have left their trademark diggings. To the side is a huge Lilac desperate for a
pollard and reshape and then several flowering bushes and a rampant jasmine.
The best part of cutting back the bushes is discovering and
exposing little gems hiding underneath. In one area there were a mass of little
cyclamen all of whom stood to attention when exposed and their flowers suddenly
lit up the area. In another you discover a mass of lilies now seeding but
clearly thriving.
You start to imagine what it once looked like and wonder
what hidden bulbs are waiting to shoot up in the Spring. I cannot imagine
whoever planted this garden not having planted daffodils and tulips and crocuses
and other bulbs.
The discovery of the day was an area near the house where
ivy was spreading over something and literally taking over the patio paving. As
I started to hack it back I sensed it was not a solid bench or table or rock it
was taking over. I soon discovered it was a lattice fence! The weight of the
ivy plus a rotten post at one end had brought the fence to its knees and the
ivy was engulfing the stricken timber. The fence is now back in position the
ivy remains, albeit cut back and a once-hidden flower bed is now reclaimed.
After some five hours we called it a day and looked at the
18 large bags of cuttings, rubbish, and admired the garden and our work.
‘I hope I can get this lot in the car,’ I remark.
Anna replies, ‘We can leave those four brown bags for the
council.’
‘I wasn’t even counting them.’
I think I will write to the Guinness book of Records to see
if I qualify for a world record for the most black bags of garden waste in a
car. When I set off all seats were fully occupied up to the roof, the boot just
shut with a push and there was no rear view mirror and I had to crane my neck
to see half a side mirror on the passenger side. Driving with care I made it to
the refuse depot and what was a empty half skip for green waste soon became
full.
When I got back into the car, both the car and I gave a huge
sigh of relief and set off home.
Two quite different gardens this week and two different sets
of plants. It is strange but an allotment is vastly different from a garden in
its demands and maintenance. However, all gardening is rewarding, and my body
now needs a good hot soak and to relax. I bet I go to sleep tonight not counting
sheep but black bags going into a car!
