I had bought a new mowing machine which made a difference to the quality of the cut and the speed with which I could get the work done, thus allowing me more time for the other maintenance tasks that were necessary. The first picture shows how I had kept the old nursery bed behind the shed temporarily, and into it had transferred plants that I had lifted for future use elsewhere once I had finalised my plans for development -
It was still a scruffy looking patch, but it was serving a purpose.
I had removed the fruit cage, and started digging it to put it down to grass. In so doing I had probably made myself unpopular, because it meant there would no longer be freebie veg for the staff. Tough. That wasn't what I was there for -
I had begun work on the hedges generally and they were starting to look a bit more even. This shot is of the former kitchen garden -
The rampant ivy had been cleared from the pierced walls, which could now be seen from the south for the first time in years. These were an interesting feature I hoped to exploit later -
An overgrown Pyracantha, which had once reached over the box hedge in front of it to grab the clothing of anyone using the path, had now been cut back hard and trained around the piercings to make a feature for the future. As it was an old and very robust plant, I had to work with what I had, rather than train in flexible young growth in an even formation. Nevertheless, it worked, even with its odd shape -
That first year I had not been ready to replant the Roses in the Rose Garden, as I had a mountain of other work to dig my way through, so I used a bedding scheme of Petunias and Verbenas. This was prudent planning, because I intended to use the Verbenas as a permanent underplanting to the Roses the following winter -
Close up it looked ok too, and was a considerable improvement on the weeds that had greeted me at interview -
The orchard was tidy by now, but the incongruous shrubs were still in place, and dead and dying trees were evident, which I had been giving a chance to prove themselves. They would have to go -
We hosted an exhibition of sculpture that year which did not prove universally popular, but which, frankly, was brighter than most of the garden at that time. Behind the sculpture, to the right, the work I had done on the Wisteria the previous winter was beginning to show benefits, as it was now being held tighter to the wall, and I was beginning to train it further over the door into the house -
Whatever happened, I was going to keep those disrespectful buggers off my grass, but with hindsight it probably caused me more stress than I should have allowed it to. But the front entrance did look better for it -
The sculptures certainly made an impact, as well as causing inconvenient obstacles for me to mow round. This one caused more impact than most, as it blew apart in the East Coast winds one day and ended up in bits on the lawn, triggering earnest discussions on the subject of Health and Safety. But hey, that's not what art's about is it?
Looking back, my first eight months had largely been about clearing up a load of mess and sharpening the basics of the care, like the mowing, weeding and edging. It had still been a big job, though and I had done it on my own, which is the challenge I had set myself here. I was proving myself capable of achieving the goals I had set myself, but the big improvements were still to come, and some of them hadn't even arrived in my head yet.
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