Starting work on a new garden: Good News!

As the title suggests, there is good news on the new garden.Picking up from the last update, I didn't think there was much to write about in the new garden. It looked like the owner would only be engaging me to mow the lawn and not much else. I was feeling very disheartened after the first visit but things are looking up...I met the owner this morning very briefly. We had a chat and she asked me how the garden was coming along. After only one visit I didn't have an awful lot to say but I expressed my concerns that only 3 hours a week wouldn't get much more than the lawnmowing done. I recommended 6 hours a week, which is my usual working day once breaks and lunch have been taken out (about an hour in total) and she has agreed to give this a go for a trial of four weeks. The garden needs much more than that to bring it up to a good standard but I am hoping that in four week's time, I will have done enough work to demonstrate how invaluable I will be to the upkeep of the garden as a whole. I'll let you know how that one goes.I also explained that this time of year is difficult when picking up a new garden as usually I would have done much more preparation in the Spring. Once on top of the preparation, it's a much more simple job to keep up with the maintenance and the garden will look consistently better throughout the growing season. Picking up a garden which hasn't had that sort of preparation done in the Spring makes things a little more difficult and it can take longer for the garden to start looking coherent.Looking at this garden, I'm not really sure where to start on the renovation. The areas which are more openly visible are the obvious point to start but there are so many of them that I will probably start with the borders around the entrance / driveway. Getting a good approach up to the house is always appreciated I think (I wouldn't exactly describe it as 'Kerb Appeal' but it's the nearest thing I can think of at the moment).Anyway, having some good news on this garden, I'll upload a few photos once I've scanned them in so you can get a bit of an idea of what I'm facing. I'll hopefully have more to write about as the season progresses. It's still early days yet but hopefully I'll be able to persuade the owner that composting the garden waste is a good thing...

"I have been using Melcourt Sylvagrow for a few years now. Bracken based & no wood fibre or crap within it. I tend to mix in some Perlite depending on what it is being used for. It was sold in 50Lt bags until last spring when they dropped 20% out,…"

"Hi Henry - Sounds like the starter motor is trying to turn the engine over but it has jammed. You could try freeing it off by rocking the machine backwards and forwards. It may work. Did for me on an Etesia 124. Good luck."

"I'm trying out Uncle Tom's Rose Tonic this year as well as Sulphur Rose and am keen to see the results. Obviously I can't recommend them yet, but will report back if they work. "

Comments

chris June 20, 2008 at 7:41pm

very interesting andy i have just started up part time in the afternoons and really busy just trying to get my head round how many hours i need to fill to go full time i was interested you saying you work 6 hrs a day for how many weeks thanks i am charging 15hr