Finding time for that overrun garden

Peter Dowdall reflects on the time when the garden gets too big and we all get less able to deal with the work.

Similar to embarking on the journey of parenthood for the first time, dipping your toe in the garden for the first time may also have been a bit nerve-wracking.

The first step was a tentative adventure into bedding plants and perhaps, some of the more foolproof shrubs, while being unsure as to how they would survive and thrive. And with references galore for every step of the way — from choosing which plants to grow; what to feed them; how to treat any pest and disease problems — the new bundle of life blossomed with love and support.

First steps were taken, first words and other milestones were hit and, with this increased confidence, tasks that at first seemed such a daunting challenge, before too long became second nature.

Likewise, a child’s first temperature is far more serious than the first attack of greenfly or slug infestation in your garden, but the feeling of not knowing what to do next is similar. Text books and manuals need to be referred to again, but with the passing of time and the accumulation of that most important of things, experience, intuition soon takes over.

During this time the garden becomes less daunting and more of a hobby, a peaceful and enjoyable place to spend time; a place where the children play and where memories are created. As the years go by, the more challenging chapters of the books are opened until soon no more books are needed and you intuitively know what to do.

Bedding is replaced with perennial and shrub borders, plants are collected from trips to garden centres, friend’s homes and even holidays. In short, the garden became a living part of you and your family life.

Most recently I have heard people describing how the garden is getting beyond them all too often — and when the pleasure becomes a chore, it’s time to take action.

A garden need not be high maintenance, indeed it can be next to no maintenance if you take the right steps. Most plots need some degree of work during the year but it may be as low as a once-yearly pruning as is the case with those elegant Buxus (boxwood) balls and pyramids which need to be trimmed once only during late July.

Perennials need little attention too, many benefitting from the Chelsea chop in early to mid-May, some dead heading during the summer months and during the winter. They will thank you for a rich mulch along with a more thorough pruning before the new growth starts again in the spring — still not exactly high maintenance. Some plants however will require much more regular work during the year to keep them in good health and looking well.

Lavender and hebes will all get woody and lanky if they aren’t trimmed often during the growing season. Cytisus or broom, soon to set the countryside alight with its bright yellow or red flowers, needs the same treatment and even with all this care these plants will still outgrow themselves and need replacing after a number of years.

While the bundles that had developed into teenagers were around the house, this was a non-issue as much energy could be expended lifting and replanting, digging and cutting back. But many are at the stage of only seeing their little bundles, (now adults), on family visits or Skype.

Lifting a shrub which has gotten too big or cutting back the borders are jobs which prove too much to bodies which are not what they once were. What now for those gardens?

If you are at that stage, then it’s time to take drastic action. Each garden, being as different as each person or each family that created it, will require different work now. Some can be fixed with some minor tinkering around the edges and replacing the most vigorous of plants, while some will need extreme makeovers.

My advice to anyone is to stop ignoring it and hoping it will change. Good gardeners that can come and maintain your garden on a regular or irregular basis are hard to find, and will, of course, cost money.

Less-than-good gardeners can butcher your prized specimens and cause much heartache. Don’t put your head in the sand and hope that the situation will improve. It won’t.

Nature won’t wait and the garden will soon get out of hand and the situation will soon arise where that which was something that grew with you and gave you much joy, will now be causing you daily distress.

If you’re not sure what to do then call for help. You’ll find help in your local garden centre or even better get a recommendation from someone who has done something similar.

You have a very different relationship now with that bundle of blankets that came through the door so many years ago, and you now need different things from each other — so too, you need the garden to be something different now.