Member-only story
Gardener’s Pledge: Tiny Crowded Garden 2
636.
I promise that I will not apply any kind of insecticide, herbicide, pesticide or artificial fertilizer to my plants, soil, water or air.
On the other side of the front garden — on the left of the front door — is a sallow tree and lots of ferns, two sad dwarf fruit trees (cherry and plum, no fruit ever). The sallow tree is also known as a Goat Willow (Salix caprea) which I think is rather charming though I’ve seen no goats.
In the corner is a fuchsia suffering from a virus which makes the leaves and flowers mix together into misshapen blobs. Cutting it back hard helps but then the blobs return. All the fuchsia around us seems to have this virus. Growing in the fuchsia is another St John’s Wort. Below the concrete platform is a retired Christmas tree in a pot, amazingly still alive. Also a plastic bench for the recycling bags and a lot of brambles that keep coming back, pulled up and left to dry out.
I never know what to do with all the branches and cuttings so I leave them, thinking I’ll make a bonfire and burn them, but I don’t. I’ve got the same on the right side of the garden but not brambles, just cuttings. I used to hope that a hedgehog would find the pile and honour me with his presence. One did come but a week later I found him dead at the end of the back lane which gives access to all the back gardens, probably killed by one of the idiots who drive along the single-track lane as if it was the M4. So I haven’t tried attracting any more hedgehogs.
Please feel free to tell me what I should do with all the brush lying everywhere.
