GARDEN DIARY: WEEK ONE

The first ten days are under our belt, and what a ten days it has been! My body aches but the hard work has been worth it. 

In no way were we were prepared for the amount of rubbish that had been left by the previous occupant. There must be several hundred pots of varying sizes, which we are reluctant to throw away, yet need to find reasons to keep them. There were at least ten milk crates used to hold-up work stations and other make-do features. There is a rusty bathtub we need to scrap - the list is endless! 

Mother Nature, over the years, has impacted the garden in many ways, but you can always rely on humans to do the worst of the damage. The sheer volume of plastic and scrap waste that we have to sort out is overwhelming, regardless of the weeding we have to do. 

The first week was mainly spent clearing the rubbish to the top of the garden, as well as removing all of the bramble bushes that have overrun the entire garden. A neighboring garden has been completely neglected and the brambles have encroached our land. When stripping back their side of the boundary, I uncovered a rusty gate, and, for a moment, had visions of Leatherface charging towards me with a chainsaw. That's the level of forest that has developed next to us - horror movie levels.

At the beginning of the week, I got stuck into clearing the knotweed, which has surrounded the well. Luckily there isn't a huge amount but I am hopeful we can keep on top of it. During this time the other half was due to join me after his ambulance training when he called to say he had been in a car crash. Luckily he wasn't hurt but the car was a write-off. Unable to do anything to help, I carried on. There is always something to do. 

The end of the week saw us dispose of the majority of the wood that was left. A lot of it is rotten but we saved the good pieces. I managed to clear many of the brambles by the first greenhouse, so we can now see inside. Progress! 

With all the rubbish cleared we are ready to order a skip and begin to rotivate the main part of the land. We had planned to demolish the old greenhouses, which were damaged in the storms this year, but I discovered a bird's nest attached to the brambles behind one of them. We'll be stuck with the greenhouses for at least a couple of months now. Learning to work with nature is something I'll have to get used to. 

I'm excited for what the next week will bring. With the end of lockdown always looming I worry we will run out of time. Being back in full-time work will leave us with very little time in the garden. Until then I enjoy every moment I can.