For the last 3 years I have been waiting for the boys to bring the excavator into the garden to remove some trees and scrape off the top soil and reseed to give me a perfect manicured lawn. However….. While hanging washing on the line in my unkempt garden I realised I was in love with my garden the way it was. I was standing in the middle of a thousand bluebells (approximately), with the early morning sunlight creating dappled shade through the beach trees at the edge of our wood, with cabbage white butterflies dancing above the long grass and an owl (who had quite forgotten it was bed time) hooting in a neighbouring tree. Why would I want a manicured lawn when I could have this romantic wilderness? Unfortunately when the bluebells die it all starts to look rather scruffy and I return to my thoughts of a manicured lawn again.
So this weekend Mark and Alex set to work with the strimmers. My Dad (who was here for a holiday) and I, set to work with a saw and secateurs. We now have a very respectable garden. By taking off all the branches below head height on intruding trees we have opened up the garden and can now see into the woods from the house. There’s still more work to be done to level the ground, but now I can have a lawn from June to January, and from February to June I shall allow it to grow wild so I can once again stand in the middle of a thousand bluebells (approximately) whilst hanging the washing in the trees.
It was unfortunate that it rained the whole time we were working, but it gave us much to laugh about, especially as my dad looks like a turtle with his green head and legs and brown body. He’s definitely my hero in a half shell, Turtle power! (Teenage mutant hero turtles)
