A few new bits of work

Hello again!

All this year I have been resurrecting mostly lawns and have I learnt a lot? Yes I have.

The biggest thing I've learned is it's bloomin' hard work guv'nor. Raking out moss and thatch, removing old tired turf and laying new stuff, but most of all creating a new lawn with nothing but seed, fertiliser and a wing and a prayer.

The first of two I will show tonight dear reader is Quainton. This is the garden that has been thoroughly destroyed by very necessary building works and as you can see it really did look like the set of Blackadder Goes Forth. The Somme.

In June, with the help of a couple of the builders, we levelled the ground as much as possible and this is what it looks like in August (6th August, just six weeks later).

Obviously still a bit rough and there are still some patches but it is doing so well. The trench you see in the above shot ran right through the middle of the first of the new pictures. Isn't nature a wunnerful thing?

And the second revamped garden is in Tring and belongs to a couple of friends - stupidly I forgot to take some before shots, but trust me this is very different to what was there just two weeks ago. Again a major builder led catastrophe, but now a simple little garden that I think enhances the front...

...please ignore the bald bit on the far right, this was a hideously underestimated turf supply. Note finely trimmed hideous laurel hedge and topiary round the windows. I do like a bit trimming.

So pleased to be back writing this tosh, I will try to keep it up as I do enjoy it, not as much as the work, but it has it's ability to soothe my fevered brow.

Happy daze...

Burn baby burn...

...garden inferno at Quainton today. Perfect for a pyromaniac like me. I've been saving up tons of stuff, built a large bonfire and then set a match to it, woomph!

It looked not unlike this:

...I lied, it looked more like the one below...

...oh dear, lied again...

Yeah, that was it, bit like this one.

Must remember to take my camera to work more often, the one on the new phone is poxy, anyway the fire was splendid, lasted all day and caused no complaints for once, which is nice - not fond of people complaining.

Not long ago I was working on the old compost area at Quainton - which is now the new compost area (see below) - and this old-ish couple leant on the wall and commenced watching what I was doing. It got a bit unnerving after about five minutes, I had smiled but they kind of ignored that, so I said, "Can I help you?" "What you doing?" asked the man. "Clearing the compost area," I replied. "Why?" asked the man - the woman just frowned. "Why not?" I replied. "Just asking," she said. They then moved on. Bizarre some country folk.

I hope to be remember to take the camera tomorrow, Thursday and Friday (yep, working Easter Friday and Monday too, bit hypocritical for an atheist not to really) just so I can update the gardens at Buckland, Hemel, Tring and Pat's in Berkhamsted...

Happy burning baby...

Brain freeze...

Bloody hell, over three months since my last blog, that's shameless that is. It's not like I've been overly busy, just lazy as far as this is concerned. Shocking really.

In the past three weeks I have been mainly up to my ankles in compost, digging it over and loading up wheel barrows full and transporting all round the four main gardens I work on. It's been a delight really, especially this week when it's actually been cold enough to be winter. However, I did give up on Monday afternoon, digging a vegetable plot in a blizzard (sort of), but back there tomorrow to finish it off.

Did I ever mention I like compost? Especially when I have made it - not literally of course, but from rotting leaves, grass cuttings and the like... 

It's been sooooo cold recently, but I have been able to keep up the work on the four major gardens in Berkhamsted (Pat's place), Quainton (Rebecca), Dancer's End Tring and Julie's at Buckland. And, just as a reminder, if only for myself, this is what they look like in nice weather!

Pat's place last Spring - remember Spring? Apparently it was
20 degrees warmer at this time last year

The kitchen view at Quainton. It looks very different this year, I've
managed to move even more plants into this bed and got rid of the arch,
it was intrusive and fell apart when I attempted to take it down! I
have moved 17 rose bushes from the driveway too - as soon as the
weather gets more conducive to nice photography I am going to take
new shots of the garden prior to a major re-vamp, ie getting the lawns back
from the builders!

Dancer's End House in Tring. This garden keeps me very trim (ish...) it's all hills and dales
and enormous. Been tidying all the beds recently after weeks of sorting out the compost and
chopping and trimming and pruning. Burnt a lot of stuff

...same at Buckland. Tidy, tidy, tidy... Dug over
the rockery around the pond in a vain attempt
at getting rid of the mare's tail. Watch this space!

Anyway, I aim to get back into regular blogging again. I think the weather has got to me in such a way as to freeze not only my fingers but also my brain.

Keep warm... Peace and love, Simon x

Blogging eh?

I get this feeling that I'm just not cut out for this blogging mallarkey. I have no continuity about me, basically it's a tad pathetic. However, in my defence, I am a bit of an anarchist, so structured "stuff" like, do this now and then do that, is a bit of an anathema. Seriously, I won't be told.

Witness this, just the other day, a rather ancient lady said, "Here you! What are you doing?" To which I replied, nothing. What happened was, I appeared from an area of garden belonging to my oldest (sorry longest) client that was very apparent to the "general public". Said woman had a walking stick and proffered it in my direction saying,

"I shall hit you with this if you don't explain yourself."

Now, I would quite simply have explained to the said lady that I was in fact the gardener of the house and grounds in front of her very face, BUT, I couldn't be bothered.

"Who do you think you are?"

Again, what a crap question to ask of an anarchist - whether said anarchist  was in that space relevantly or not, is beside the point. At this juncture I should say that I was in fact quite legitimately dumping some debris from said garden in a perfectly legal site.

Once again the old lady touted the aforementioned walking stick in my face.

"Please," I said, "stop that." I could have scripted the reply.

"Oh, I shall hit you if you do not explain yourself."

"I don't think so," I replied. "I am the gardener here and if you even attempted to hit me, I don't think it would have succeeded."

"I am a very successful shot you know," she replied.

I wanted to say, "Fuck off you ancient waste of space; you left over piece of upper middle class Tory trash." But I smiled and said, "Seems we have had a bit of a misunderstanding, peace be with you."

She seemed to be appeased, but walked off swishing the stick in a very Errol Flynn stylee. Real life is so much more weirder than the made-up stuff.

Here some pix, my brethren:

You see this is where i go wrong all the time, I forget to take before
pictures, so trust me, this was very untidy before I weaved my magic.

Wish I knew the name of more shrubs - this is at Rebecca's in
Quainton - and I cut it back quite dramatically last year, don't it look good?
(Picture taken about four weeks ago.)

Newest garden - about four weeks ago - and a freshly cut lawn, mmmm...

The above three pictures are of the Laurel hedge at Quainton. I have
taken off about four foot to allow a bit more sunshine into the garden and,
more importantly, at the front of the house.

Oh, isn't it just soooooo lovely?

Thing is, it bloody damn well is!

I Thannnnnyou... Garden on xxx

Is it really that long since I did this?

Thing is, th'Limpits was actually quite good, especially the bit where we won stuff, but on a serious note, Seb Coe? Boris Johnson - what the freaking hell does he take to get like that and THAT hair, he must have got it from some obscure DIY shop, you know the sort, they sell individual nails and screws and they put things in brown paper bags still. 

BUT, the best moment was Gideon getting the bird from 80,000 in th'Limpit stadium - whose dumb idea was that, "Yes George, good PR, go to th'Limpits and stand out in the open with a gold trinket. That'll sort out all the problems and send us flying high in th'Pinion Polls." And one last thing before th'Limpits gets to Rio (what will they do with the kids on the streets this time?) if Cammo claims the Volunteers as an example of the Big Society one more time, I shall... Well, I shall! 

See, the thing is, people have "volunteered" to help others since time immemorial. From doing a bit of shopping for a sick or elderly, or both, neighbour to helping out on the school PTA to collecting jumble for some obscure cause you believe in or, wait for it, some needy political party that is struggling for support. Here is a Party Political Broadcast on behalf of the Lickle People Party (that's the Lib-Dems to you, 'cos at the next election that's what they'll be, Lickle... And if they actually call themselves The Lickle People Party they might just get a few sympathy votes.)

Since I was last here I have picked up two more gardens and have a very healthy full few weeks up 'til the end of October, which is good, as I have missed so many days over the summer - what summer? - don't think I've been so wet so frequently. Wetter than a wet thing that's been swimming, forgot their towel and then walked in the rain without a coat or umbrella-ella-ella-ella...

Anyhoo - why do I say that? Anyhoo, here be some pictures from the last six weeks or so:

Our own garden, looking  a tad unloved...

...bit of hedge trimming at home, busman's hols!!!

Some of the trees at Rebecca's in Quainton

Occasional work in Hudnall, just outside Berkhamsted - this
and next two shots

The new "big" house. This place is a beauty, about a mile from home and has so much grass and so many hedges they have one bloke to do the grass, one to do the hedges and me, to do the rest...

I actually trimmed this hedge, the longest single hedge I think
I've ever done. About 80 metres long - that pen houses the
pig, no not Boris or Osbourne, The Pig, see below...

I trained this clematis in the Spring - and it did what it was told

Tom & Vicky's place in Aldbury. I'm going to get rid of most of the gravel and enlarge the lawn area. Lawd knows when, but hopefully before the end of Autumn

A long bed at the new "big" house. Before...

The Pig...

A long bed at the new "big" house. After

New lawn needed methinks. Quainton again

The new "big" house.. Awright for some eh?

Me new bezzie. She's very old and very blind, bless...

So, there you have it, apologies for so many new pix, but I have been most neglectful during these past few weeks and felt the need to catch up.

Oh yeah, Th'Aralimpits, what an inspiration; what a cornucopia of togetherness; what a delight to see Ellie Simmond's smile again. Blind football? Wheelchair rugby? Archery without arms? You couldn't make it up...

Happy whatever!

Si-Botic

Hong Kong Garden

OK, spurious link alert, I made the title of this load of bloggox "Hong Kong Garden" because I've been watching Punk Britannia and Siouxsie and the Banshees were a favourite of mine back in the day. My tenuous link to Punk? I was once at a party and the four original members of the Sex Pistols were there. This was in the winter of 1975/6 I think and John Lydon was sitting all by himself in an armchair nursing a glass of something looking bored to tears.


 I was told who he was and what the band were called and said, "Who?" waddya know, hindsight is a wonderful thing. This was a little while before the Summer of '76 kicked in, you know that drought that didn't have any rain, unlike the recent just ended drought... In that summer I disappeared for 10 days - bit like Agatha Christie, only she was a writer and I'm not - on my famed (in our family) "Lost Weekend".


I went to Liverpool for a long weekend and didn't return for the aforementioned allotted time. I didn't ring work and I didn't ring home. I think it was the first time my dad truly worried about me - we had an awkward teen-year-thing going on. I was 19, the teen-year-thing had started six years before!


Anyhoo, enough of that stuff, gardens, that's what it's all about. Recently I have bloggocksed about the weather and how rather restricting it has been for me on the work front. Suffice to say, not a lot has changed, but I did work on every day this week which is a first for three weeks or so.


Here are some pictures and I think I will add longer captions than usual, just to speed things up a bit.

This is nice... At Pat's place in Berko Robins have decided her
post box is the perfect home. Sweet!

Pat's grass hadn't been cut for a couple of weeks and she gets mildly
paranoid at that fact. I think this Wem-ber-lee look is pretty damn good.
 I usually cut it with curves through it but last week I decided to give it
 a formal look. Standard stripes across and down the length of the lawn.
I, for one, think it looks fine...

The brown at the bottom of this Hebe is from "someone" using the dreaded weed killer without thinking about the plants. Disappointing, it's not my garden but I don't like the use of chemicals for this very reason. You have to be sooooo careful when applying them. A lot of the plants have been affected. Shame.

The following are from Rebecca's place in Bucks and I have to say it was an eventful day there this Tuesday 19th June 2012 (so sue me Locog!) if only for the fact that my trimmer's engine basically fell off mid-trim. It got so hot the plastic melted and the whole back of the trimmer, petrol driven, just fell to the ground all aflame and obviously feeling a bit sorry for itself. A sad demise seeing how it was well less than a year old. On to the warranty then, but in the mean time I had to buy a new one.


Tring garden centre is OK, don't get me wrong, but this Wednesday - obviously the 20th - it was nothing short of, well, inCompRehensibly APpaling. The servers had crashed - perhaps linked to the RBS/NatWest debacle this week, whatever! - and there were no staff to help anyone, anywhere.


I asked for a Ryobi In-line trimmer, petrol driven. Firstly, no one was available to see if they had one in stock, "We never keep that many in stock sir." 15 minutes later the member of staff cajoled into "helping me" came back with a Flymo hover mower and electric trimmer. Another member of staff said, as I sent the first one back to get what I asked for, "Sorry, he's the Plantarian Manager." What's that got to do with me, I thought. It was like a line from Fawlty Towers. "He's from, Bar-cell-owner."


Next the Plantarian - a Dr Who character if ever there was one - returned with a Ryobi Brushcutter. Twice the price and NOT the item I asked for. Problem was I only spotted it when the Plantarian asked for more money. "If I didn't need it urgently, I work as a gardener, I would be walking away from here mate! I want a Ryobi In-line trimmer," as he walked away with the brushcutter I added, "Petrol driven."


At this point the original assistant, a woman who looks like Sonia from Eastenders, caught my eye - thankfully she didn't drop it - and, I kid you not, tutted. "I know," I said, "he's a Plantarian."


He came back with the correct product. I paid and took a double pack of gardening gloves for my trouble - this episode took 40 minutes. 


Oh yeah, the original Flymo hover mower (returned to the stock room) was actually wanted by another customer who had wandered off and "...lost all sense of time..." I kid you not, she said that after being away from the till for over 30 minutes.


Likesay, pix from Rebecca's:

A lovely Delphinium

I love a pond... And I love lily pads

The driveway - I so should take "before" pictures, this is a truly remarkable transformation!

Oh dear! Work in progress I believe. Each week seems to bring more problems with the drains - bit like the Coalition Government.

So, there you have it, that was the week that was. More rain than you can shake a stick at (sic) and the thought that I should have at least shaken said stick at the Plantarian.


Happy Shaking...

I promise not to mention the weather...

OK, I feel a bit lost. I am one of those sad individuals who has to do something. And by something, I mean work. I have this innate feeling that I must earn to justify my existence. When I think logically about that obvious psychotic behaviour I should tell myself, "Chill, if you can't work it's not your fault", but I feel like I'm letting people down. All those nice people with their lovely gardens... Ho hum.


Anyhoo, I have a backlog of pictures to upload and will basically make a selection from the past month or so. It's probably a good thing as I have quite a lot and so I must edit out the worst ones. (Can't believe I haven't blogged for over a month, still can't get the hang of this!)

First time in my life I actually love a car - not in the fruity sense of the word obviously, that would be berserk. The "Belgrano" (big and grey and never been anywhere near the Falklands) is a beauty and now I have discovered boxes it's actually quite neat!

Here are some little jobs I have done, not insignificant of course just some nice tidying up, something I actually enjoy - slightly gay?

Before...

...after. A nice little cottage in Tring

Before...

...after. The greenhouse area at Rebecca's place in Quainton - why is this soooo enjoyable?

Before...

...after. A little bit of topiary at Julie's place in Buckland. I sometimes feel cutting hair may have been a good career, but then I think hair is such a bad idea...

Some flowers:

"Bellis perennis is a common European species of Daisy, of the aster family, often considered the archetypal species of that name. Many related plants also share the name "daisy", so to distinguish this species from other daisies it is sometimes qualified as common daisy, lawn daisy or English daisy."
Many thanks to Wikipedia! I love daisies, such a shame I spend so much of my time mowing them up. I think they are so quintessentially British and we should adopt the little beauty as our national flower, sod the rose!

And here are some pretty pictures (I think) sort of at random. Yeah, that's the sun in the top one - damn! does that constitute mentioning the weather?

This is a painting in waiting isn't it? Love those shadows, but seeing as my current painting has been sitting in the dining room untouched for about 3 months, it ain't gonna happen some time soon

The previously flowerless wisteria at Pat's.
I'm hoping next year will see it awash!

Lunch time at Pat's - gotta get those feet up some time!

OK! That's it for this post, I'm going to have to write another to include the remainder of the pictures. They have a bit of an irreverent feel, so I think it would be out of place in a blog with such nice pictures.


Back in a mo...


Happy days!