Sunday, 16th April 2006

Back to my roots

There is a rectangular plot of land at the back of the house which we refer to as a garden. Certainly it looks more like a garden since we carted away all the rubbish deposited by the previous owners and cut back the bramble that covered much of the grass – I suppose an estate agent might refer to that part of the garden as a lawn however that would be stretching the description by a long way. Neither of us have a clue about gardening as the picture below shows although we have had the sense to maintain the fruit trees as we have grown to enjoy eating the apples from the garden.

Nevertheless the apple trees aside the garden looks unloved and, during my time at home either recovering from the surgery or chemotherapy, I have been plotting in my mind how we might make some modest improvements. The first thing that has to go is that shed. We have talked about that shed for years but with other demands on the household budget such as new windows, doors, and nursery fees the upkeep of the garden has taken a low priority. Consequently nothing much has changed there since we cleared away the rubbish almost seven years ago. However with Benjamin turning five during the Summer, and full-time school on the horizon, the monthly payments to his private nursery will soon stop. I have already worked out where we can spend some of the money. In the meantime I decided to cash in some savings to fund some initial improvements. The shed seems like a good place to start.

Thankfully we are still in touch with a very good local handyman: Charlie. We called him and gave him a list of jobs in the garden including the repair and replacement of fencing, laying down a concrete base for a new shed and demolishing a rather ugly bit of masonry installed by the previous owners. We have a date in the diary for him to start work and we will be all the happier once the transformation starts taking shape. But what to do with the rest of the garden? Well, we have also decided to install a playhouse for the children which will be a nice surprise for them, and the challenge really is to try and create a child-friendly, low-maintenance, attractive little patch at the back of the house. Bryan is not keen on the old garden path and neither am I. The grass needs uprooting and replaced with good quality topsoil and lawn turf. Some hardy perennials around the borders would probably be a good idea however with a hosepipe ban just coming into force we need to think carefully about what we buy. This is the little project which I am hoping will provide a positive way to direct my remaining energies during the second half of my chemotherapy.

During the Bank Holiday week-end we visited my parents and I found a newspaper in their living room which contained an article written by the gardener Monty Don. In the article Monty advocates the merits of mulching during April. What a wonderful word! I had no idea what he meant by this, but already I was keen, so I read on. Essentially, mulching involves laying down a collection of gardening fodder (mulch) onto flower beds to deter weeds and maintain moisture in the ground. So far so good. But, as Bryan quietly observed, we had mostly weeds in out garden so what was the point of mulching? Well, if he had read Monty's article he would have understood that the mulching would stop further weeds from appearing. And in any case, I was planning to uproot all those rogue weeds. A planting plan was formulating in my head and the first line of the plan involved weeding and, if I could manage it, some serious mulching. I can almost see Monty nodding wisely back at me from the page of the newspaper. Then I took another hard look at the little suburban garden at the back of our house and decided to postpone any immediate activity until Charlie had started some of his work.

The front garden looked pretty apart from some weeds, so when we got back home I set about pulling some out. I found an old pair of gardening gloves, checked there was nothing crawling around inside, and began to pull out some weeds, in a feeble sort of way I admit. Nevertheless I had started my gardening project which was a satisfying experience. After a little while an elderly gentleman stopped just outside our front garden and sighed heavily. We live opposite a Doctor's surgery so a number of people walk past every day. I am usually unaware of the activity as I am at work but in recent months I have noticed just how busy it gets during surgery hours. Anyway the gentleman sighed again and groaned audibly.
At first I felt like saying, “Move on buddy, I have my own problems.” Instead the following words left my lips, “Are you all right there?”
"Yes love,” came the reply “apart from my gout, that is.”
“Oh, sorry to hear that. At least you're heading in the right direction.” I said cheerfully nodding towards the surgery across the road.
“Not sure that will help...had this for years,” he responded.
“Well, they're very good in there,” I said, thinking that that would do, and that he would move on.
But, much to my disbelief he stopped walking and replied, “ Really?”
I couldn't believe it: I only came out to do a bit of weeding not provide a counselling service. “Oh definitely we've had all sorts of things fixed in there,” I responded in a reassuring a manner as I could muster. It seemed to work.
“Let's hope they can do the same for me” he replied and, with that, he turned to cross the road.
I carried on weeding before the size of the task got the better of me. I looked at my fistfuls of uprooted weeds and couldn't help but feel pleased with myself. I didn't see the gentleman again. Maybe they fixed him in there after all.