Wednesday 7 October 2020

Another Day Another Garden

 


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!