We have a pretty long garden - 43 metres in fact. I know that because I once measured it - from our kitchen door to the little white gate that opens onto the back lane. 43 metres is 47 yards.
In the depths of winter, when it's cold and often dark and wet, I hardly venture out into the garden at all - maybe an occasional trip up to the compost bins with kitchen waste - vegetable peelings and the like. But at other times of the year, good weather will often draw me out and I get on with jobs like cutting the grass, trimming the privet hedges, digging, weeding or just pottering about.
Two or three hours in the garden does me a world of good. I return to the house feeling somehow energised and with the satisfying knowledge that I have done some jobs that needed doing.
Since the episode with that horrible antibiotic - nitrofurantonin, I have remained in gradual recovery mode and just have not felt magnetised by the garden even though there were jobs that needed doing. Ours is not a neat, manicured garden. I am happy that it has an obvious element of wildness though it will never be as wild and unkempt as when we moved into this house in 1989.
The previous owners had done nothing to the garden during the decade that they lived here. They were national "Scrabble" champions so I guess they needed to spend time checking obscure words in dictionaries rather than trimming the hedges or cutting the grass. There was no fence at the bottom and no garden gate but they had made a well-trodden path to the rotary clothes airer that stood in the middle of their mini-savannah - an oasis for neighbourhood cats and butterflies.
You could say that I made our garden from scratch - taming and cutting back the jungle, creating borders, building a path, erecting a greenhouse, planting greenery and making a vegetable plot and a wall and a fence and the little white gate that is now in dire need of replacement. It has served us well for thirty years but nothing lasts forever.
Anyway, today I was drawn out there. I put my old fleece on and my fingerless gloves and got cracking with the right hand hedge. It will be the last time I trim it this year. One of the plus points of a Yorkshire wintertime is that grass and hedges stop growing so you can put away your lawnmower and your electric hedge trimmer till the following springtime.
Though sunny, there was a definite chill in the air today. Leaves are turning colour and starting to fall. I could detect the distant odour of a bonfire. A robin hopped around as I raked up the hedge clippings and a pair of magpies quarrelled in a nearby conifer tree - cacophonous and raspy. Yes autumn is here.
I like the looks of your garden; peaceful.
ReplyDeleteWe are in a city of 500,000. It's nice to have a patch of Nature.
DeleteSounds like your autumn is much later than ours. It's a good feeling to have something you developed.
ReplyDeleteI know every inch of our garden and could talk about every square foot.
DeleteThe view from 2009 shows a nice garden. My garden is 5 metres x just under 2 metres but the front yard (communal, not mine) that I can see from my window and door is much much larger and becoming quite overgrown, home to many birds and bees and lovely to look at when I can't get out there for any reason.
ReplyDeleteDo you have kangaroos in your garden Elsie?
DeleteI have never had a garden of my own, but always enjoyed being in the tiny garden at the back of our terraced house where I grew up, or in my grandparents' much larger garden with its mix of tamed and tangled.
ReplyDeleteMy sister loves the allotment she shares with her neighbours (she has completely free reign of the place) and says it is like being in a different, better world. Even the 15 minutes or so she spent there every summer morning to water the plants were enough to get her a good start for the day.
Ludwigsburg is famous for its conker trees. When you walk in town or any of the parks, you can hardly avoid stepping on the masses that have dropped off the trees.
If only we could eat conkers! In Britain it is often said that they were introduced by The Romans.
DeleteGardening is good for the soul.
ReplyDeleteBut sometimes it is not good for the back.
DeleteInteresting that you should write about the garden. After I've typed this I'm going out into mine, in an attempt to tame some of the Bougainvillea, Hibiscus and other exotics that have taken over. Even though it's mid October it's regularly 26º-28ºC by early afternoon which encourages all the shrubs to bolt away.
ReplyDeleteThat's a very nice photo from 2009 - it's very neat and looks as though you've just cut the lawn.
Thanks Carol. I notice my sheep were not there back then.
DeleteDefinitely winter draw(er)s on down south too. I always find gardening therapeutic.
ReplyDeleteEr, what's the er doing in brackets? And you a linguist too! To err is human.
DeleteJoke. Winter draws on so need to put winter drawers on.
DeleteOh what a chump I can be at times!
DeleteLiving on the Gulf Stream we get nearly ten months of growth and I cut my hedges at least 5 times a year, but not during bird nesting season. I like your garden YP. What about building a summer house to read and write and sit and relax?
ReplyDeleteWhat about building a summer house to snort cocaine, drink beer and gamble?
DeleteSheffield's own Geoff Hamilton. Our garden isn't quite as long but we have often said that if they were developing these areas now, they would stick in an extra street in between.
ReplyDeleteOur lane at the back is in fact a continuation of Murray Road so we have got twice the size of garden we should have. Another example of you and I living parallel lives.
DeletePossibly even parallel gardens.
DeleteI liked getting a glimpse of your garden. Post more pictures! Do you have some photos of the "before" state, back in 1989?
ReplyDeleteDo you know, I don't think I have any such pictures and anyway back in 1989 I did not have a digital camera and took far fewer photos than I do these days. I will have a look in our boxes of prints some time soon.
DeleteShould be room for a few sheep.
ReplyDeleteI already have Beau and Peep.
DeleteYour garden looks beautiful. An oasis in an urban area. I live in central Virginia USA and autumn is finally become a reality after a humid summer.
ReplyDeleteVirginia - named after our virgin queen I believe - Elizabeth I.
DeleteYes it was. I taught history for years and that's something I know for sure!
DeleteI'm looking forward to going out in my backyard and working in the garden versus driving two hours round trip to visit it.
ReplyDeleteWhere on earth have you been? Des Moines?
DeleteThat is a nice garden. (American: yard). Everyone needs a little bit of ground, I think, to dig in, plant, enjoy. I don't know what I'd do without mine.
ReplyDeleteGardens are good for mental health.
DeleteYour yard looks really nice, Neil!
ReplyDeleteI'm lucky that my oldest son lives with me and cuts the grass and trims the bushes. I was thinking of getting out to do a bit of weeding today myself and now your blog has inspired me to get going. I have LOTS of weeds to pull! We will see how long my back holds out!
How many weeds did you pull up Ellen?
Delete3 large buckets full!
DeleteThat picture from 2009 shows a wonderland. I like the privet hedges but Judy can't stand them or any other planting that is trimmed to a shape. She likes wildness, hence my tenure with her!
ReplyDeleteWe have neighbours and the fashion is for neat hedges in the suburbs.
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