I spent yesterday afternoon digging and planting the first garden project I've undertaken for someone else - a former work colleague called Kevin. Some years ago I misguidedly attempted to turn Kev into a vegetable gardener, persuading him to dig up part of his lawn and plant potatoes. But the vegetable garden was not a success.
Seeking a simple hedge-cutting and lawn-mowing project to time, I recalled Kev's garden as being a neat rectangle of grass with privet hedges, so offered to cut the grass and trim the hedges as a trial run for maybe doing this sort of thing for a living. Kev's email accepting the offer confessed that he had "somewhat neglected my horticultural duties".
He wasn't joking.
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| Apocalypse then - Kev's garden before I set to work |
So the simple hedge-cutting and lawn mowing became a bit more of a project. An afternoon cleared the top layer of scrub and brambles - much of which was the overgrown remnants from a previous hedge-cutting, and during the next session the dry waste then went through the shredder to mulch the cleared ground.
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| Ground cleared and hedge trimmed back - and shredded |
I'm planting the site with a selection of trusty, indestructible perennials and enthusiastic self-seeding annuals and biennials which will, as far as possible,take care of themselves and put up a good fight against any weeds that I've missed, as I don't think my 'client' is going to get the gardening bug soon.
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| Looking towards the house |
There's still about a quarter of the site to dig, and the last planting to do -
Digitalis and
Crocosmia and some ferns, and the last pile of hedge-trimmings for shredding. In future, I'd like to add some sage shrubs for structure, and some summer perennials as most of my 'spares' for Kev have been spring/early summer flowering, but the annuals should fill in the gaps.
All being well, the end result should look rather like this...
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| My herb garden in 2008 |
