The garden I have been working in today has become rather overgrown, leaving the owner a little overwhelmed at the amount of work there is to do in it. When you don't know what you're doing, making a start can be really scary, so my job is to try and get the garden to a place where the owner feels happy doing the odd bit around the place. I can then go in and do the labour intensive, more specialised work to maintain it, leaving the residents to enjoy the garden, and do the odd bit of pottering if they so wish.
There were a number of large suckers that had come up from the tree at the bottom of the garden and they had well and truly taken root. Some of them came up easily enough by the roots, but, for most of them, I had to use the loppers to get them down, near the base. I've had to leave one though, as it was too big even for the loppers, so next time I return, I will take my saw with me. My plan will be eventually to dig those roots out because they will keep throwing up shoots. At the moment, it's all about things that can be done quickly, until more lasting solutions are found.
I managed to fill quite a number of black sacks with weeds, stinging nettles, dead grasses, and tree branches, although I will have to saw a lot of those branches down the next time to get them into bags. The garden owner has ordered a brown bin from the local Council, but this has not yet been delivered, so the black sacks are currently lined up at the back of the house, ready to start being put into the brown bin on delivery. Alternatively, these sacks can be taken to the local tip, a job which I'm afraid I cannot do due to waste management rules and regs.
I've spotted some very overgrown and weedy pots which I can definitely recycle with new plants and that will be a good quick fix to ensure the garden has something of interest over the winter.
I was also pleased to find a large mint shrub in the garden, so I plan to dig that up, cut that back and put it into a couple of small pots on the patio. It has gone to seed for now, but that will come back to life next spring/ summer and be useful for minted potatoes!
Amanda's greyhound is a very lively boy and loves digging, so there was quite a trench in the middle of the garden, although not so evident from this photo.
I've used a whole bag of compost to fill the hole and need to decide what to do with this area. I've compacted it for now, to try and stop any more digging, but I think it will probably need at least one more bag of compost to level everything out. My first thought on seeing the hole was that it would probably be ideal for a pond or a water feature, although not so ideal when you put a large greyhound into the mix!
As this was the first time I have been out gardening for someone else - rather than tending my own garden - I very quickly realised what I did and didn't need, so made copious notes while working. These are a few tools of my trade, although not nearly enough.
This little chap was serenading me as I worked.
And this photo shows an injury - longer gauntlets are needed for clearing out a large patch of stinging nettles!
Time spent working in this garden today: 2.5 hours
Jobs completed: chopped down trees and suckers; pulled up teasels and stinging nettles; dug up weeds; bagged up rubbish and left by back gate; filled hole in lawn with compost.
Jobs for future visit: saw down remaining trees and also branches to put into bags; add more compost to hole in lawn; dig out more weeds; empty the plant pots; dig up mint and plant into pot; take shears to cut grass before lawn mowing can commence again next year; buy grass seeds and sow into seed trays to make small clumps of grass to plant out in garden; dig up excess foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea) and forget me nots (Myosotis sylvatica) from my own garden to plant in pots for interest; sow tulip, iris and daffodil bulbs in pots for spring interest.
Note: not all these jobs will be done in just one visit!
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