Starting work on a new garden - first update - LJN Blog Posts

OK, so I have now seen the garden in question and have taken a few photos which I will upload just as soon as I have finished off my roll of film (luckily the roses in my own garden are just about in flower so I'll have a good chance to finish it reasonably quickly).The garden is quite an irregular shape - more or less stretching all the way round the house - and has two lawns, which I mentioned in my last post. There's not much to say about the lawns other than one is in a really awkward position so I'll be lugging my lawnmower up a set of about a dozen narrow stone steps every week while the grass is growing. The borders are dotted about the place; there is a slightly overgrown 'alpine' border in the 1970's sense as opposed to the strict alpine grower's definition of the term. It's full of quite dainty low-growing perennials and I'm afraid that I can't actually remember what exactly is in there apart from some geraniums and a large heather. It's shaded by some rhododendrons and even I have to admit, usually hating the things, that they are quite impressive.Around the front of the house, right next to the house itself, are a couple of shrub borders. There's nothing enourmously exciting about them but they seem tidy enough. Again, I have to admit that I don't go a bundle on srub borders - they always seem to be quite municipal and date really badly, regardless of what you plant in them.Going round to the left side of the house is a gravel drive which is bordered on one side by a triangular bed which has very little in it, and what might have been quite a nice, albeit small, perennial border which is now sadly just that little bit too far the other side of overgrown.All in all, the garden could be absolutely gorgeous with a bit of work and some more up-to-date planting. I'm not going to move too quickly on that side of things as I've only been enagaged on a half-day a week initially. I'm hoping that things will go smoothly, the clients will be happy with the work that I do and will begin to trust my judgement and loose the reins a little. I was expecting there to be quite a few nasty surprises but it seems that the worst I will have to deal with is some couch grass in the alpine border and the odd bramble here or there. I'm going over on Monday for the first actual session of gardening, so I'll undoubtedly spot other things which will be worth blogging about.

Ho Hum. It looks like I'm going to end up just mowing the lawns in this garden. I was quite looking forward to getting my teeth into sorting out the garden as a whole - especially sorting out the borders and getting them into shape - but it looks like the owners just want someone to cut the grass. I'm not quite sure whether they will want some attention paid to the borders at a later date, but I just have that sneaking suspicion that the owners are quite cavalier about the way they treat their garden and probably their gardeners. I'm not sure whether I'll be spending much time there and whether I'll pursue this particular avenue much further. It's quite a shame as the garden holds so much potential to be a showpiece and a real display of beauty and elegance but I just don't think the owners have the vision to fulfill that potential. What a waste.

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Comments

Andrew Fereday June 11, 2008 at 8:38pm

Ho Hum. It looks like I'm going to end up just mowing the lawns in this garden. I was quite looking forward to getting my teeth into sorting out the garden as a whole - especially sorting out the borders and getting them into shape - but it looks like the owners just want someone to cut the grass. I'm not quite sure whether they will want some attention paid to the borders at a later date, but I just have that sneaking suspicion that the owners are quite cavalier about the way they treat their garden and probably their gardeners. I'm not sure whether I'll be spending much time there and whether I'll pursue this particular avenue much further. It's quite a shame as the garden holds so much potential to be a showpiece and a real display of beauty and elegance but I just don't think the owners have the vision to fulfill that potential. What a waste.
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Phil Voice June 11, 2008 at 9:05pm

What a shame Andy - I was looking forward to you the serial!

Sounds like you will be better off keeping your eye out for another project that you can use your talents on.