Rained Off!

Normally I am busy out and about working in customer’s homes and by the time the day has finished I have little creative energy left to write an article, at best I might post something on my Facebook page.

Today I was due to chop down and remove two trees however the weather is horrendous and after checking the hourly forecast realise the rain is here for the majority of the day so I have rescheduled the task for a better day.

I thought I would take the opportunity to write and post this, we have had three heat waves in the United Kingdom this year so far and customers have needed my gardening skills, I have featured two of my recent jobs here.

The first garden was for one of my regulars, I initially tamed the garden from a jungle a few months ago, removing brambles, weeding and jet washing the patio.

After the initial tidy up I was asked if I could keep her on the books as one of my regulars, in this instance I come round once a month for a couple of hours, general tidy up, cut the grass and then spend a little time on whatever feels appropriate.

The weather I think reached temperatures in excess of thirty degrees, maybe that was why my spade had broke, or maybe I had simply just overworked it.

The trees from the neighbours on the right are blocking out a fair bit of sunlight, as luck would have it, I have been asked to work on the neighbours garden, I am hoping I am able to sensibly prune these trees back, the neighbours garden as it is is far too dark so I will keep you informed.

The second garden was a last minute request, I have been working with this customer on a few other projects and I was scheduled to help level the earth on her front driveway so we could lay a membrane.

The customer has been waiting for the local cable company Virgin Media to attend a re-install the siamese cable, it had been incorrectly laid across what was once a front lawn, I have already removed the lawn. It has taken three attempts so far to get Virgin Media to come and correct this which is delaying the project.

Consequently, although my customer was away requested I would spend the time on her back garden.

I always like to communicate with my customers and keep them in the loop so I messaged on my arrival and even remembered to take a before picture of the garden, forgot to photograph the patio although that wasn’t the priority.

She messaged me back mentioning she had a vision for the garden, I quietly smiled to myself and sent her a laughing emoji, I knew she has some great ideas but as I had discussed the garden with her in the past though I was on safe ground.

Then she sent me the images below.

I thought I had better get cracking then. I went about removing all the usual overgrown brambles ect and reclaiming the main area of the garden, I am due to repair the fence on another day and as luck would have it, found everything I needed buried, well everything except some mortar.

Today was literally a brutal tidy up, I wouldn’t make any drastic changes without the customer being present however I did want the garden to be inviting especially this time of year.

The trees definitely need some pruning back and unwanted foliage removed in places, I imagine I will be doing this soon but I would want to ensure it’s within keeping with what my customer has in mind.

The patio was overrun with weeds, some had grown above two foot, although it wasn’t included as part of my original instructions, couldn’t leave it as it was so tidied the patio up at the same time.

When I had finished, I sent the final photos and the customer was over the moon with the garden and relieved I had tidied up the patio, she hadn’t been able to tackle the weeds herself and it had got to a point they were intimidating her.

I will be back to continue the project around the front of the house and then I will be working with her to transform her garden into something that looks like her vision. It’s going to be a fun and an amazing transformation.

I always remove any excess garden waste as part of the service along with any other unwanted items.

Credit where credit is due, I was fortunate enough that when I was a teenager was asked to look after a few peoples’ gardens on a regular basis and then when I was a school leaver worked for a man called Radley who had a property maintenance business, to all these people I am grateful, it stood me in good stead, taught me how to simply turn up when expected and just work hard.

Now I am paying it forward, I have a couple of young people working for me passing on some important life skills, it is rewarding witnessing the response and feedback from my customers.

Hopefully the weather will improve and we can all enjoy the rest of the summer in our gardens, if you need my help please get in touch.