On going back to the house this morning for an early start, well 9am, it was immediately obvious how open the back of the house now was. The view from the first floor out to the ferry was much clearer and likewise the view into the walled garden was clearer. The first task of the day was to further clear the two trees that remained in this area and the ivy on the reverse of the wall to the now christened orangery.
There was a lot more cutting (some of which I will explain below) before this picture was taken but it shows the view from the first floor living room out to the ferry after removal of the two trees and the ivy. There is now clear demarcation of the inset part of the walled garden (the orangery) and perhaps from this height you can also imagine a glass roof with citrus fruit growing beneath?
So with the land clear behind the house (beyond the shed) we took the focus into the walled garden, first to remove the ivy from the inset and to clear / burn brambles that were cut last week. Again evidence of how destructive ivy can be and I compelled to post this photo because until I saw it myself I couldn’t appreciate how much a force of nature ivy can be. Started to reclaim now but there is damage to repair. I am thankful it’s not on the house itself.
Opposite the inset was once the bible garden connected to the Manse, we see this as a formal garden for a nice lawn surrounded by a border of flowers. Right now it couldn’t be more opposite a space approximately 15m square full of brambles and weeds. I also found to my pain that there was an abandoned, but still sharp, rake left behind (upturned). So more burning in situ whilst the brush cutter and hedge trimmer went to work. The bible garden had a fence that felt surplus to the hedge behind it so the decision was made to remove also. It did however highlight the work needed to the hedge. It probably does not look as though we made great inroads in the following picture but several hours and many scratched limbs would suggest otherwise.
Again I was trying to paint a picture of what we would like but there is much to restore. Remnants of the fence still remain and the out of control hedge can be seen on the left and rear of the garden. Not immediately apparent but we have found a water feature in the middle also – again needing much work. Two other features of note, which I will attempt to highlight as they were pointed out to me, on the right is both a Mimosa Tree & a Eucalyptus Tree.
Probably the most marked improvement came from the experimental hedge cutting. The photo below illustrates the before and after of cutting perfectly:
So, a huge amount of work over two days and some great wins in glorious weather. A realization of how much still to go when looking at how long it took to cut back the first of the hedge and the equating that work to the two runs of approx. 20m. Still a long way to go in clearing the rest of the fence and the brambles it borders but we will get there. Nothing left to do tonight other than to eat lasagna with a spot of light refreshment. For after dinner exercise we decided climb the hill and enjoy the views, no TV necessary.
Middle Age Musings 