| Earthly Comforts – Town Gardening Services Garden Moments Directory |
| Introduction to Garden Moments Earthly Comforts works for an eclectic and diverse client and garden base. While l perform maintenance on many of the established gardens l work on now, sometimes the maintenance results after long-term project work over several months. A new client’s garden often requires a certain amount of botanical archaeology to be carried out first, as l rarely take on a new garden that requires basic upkeep and generalised maintenance from the get-go. This is primarily due to taking on gardens that have been neglected, forgotten, lost, or new to the house owners. Occasionally, l take on overgrown and overwhelmed gardens that once had a gardener attend, but that may have been some time ago. So, the garden needs much repair work before regular maintenance can commence. Many of the gardens worked on are long games played slowly regarding restoring and recovering. When l work on a new project, my main direction and aim is to get to know the garden space first and foremost and then the clients. Therefore, l would like to see the garden through the year’s four seasons. This allows me to understand what the garden truly needs. Over that period, l would also get to know the clients and what they wanted from their garden. I hope you enjoy the series and my client’s gardens, too. Thanks for reading. Rory Matier |
| Client Avocado Recovery Brief Clean up, clear and bring allotment plot to Spring planting |
| The last two time slots allocated to the Avocado Project—Plot 43 were Friday, the 5th, and Sunday, the 7th. Friday, we experienced hefty rainfall from Thursday night to early in the morning the following day. Again, from Saturday to Sunday, we experienced heavier driving rain. The skies released heavy rainfall from Thursday to Sunday for twenty-one hours. With all the rain we have already had, the grounds at the allotments you would think would be softer to work with. But they weren’t, and come Friday, just an hour after the rain, the top of the ground was only a little softer. That’s the problem with clay soil; it retains moisture/water well and can make for very heavy digging. On Friday, I had to double-dig three fifteen-foot-long by four-foot-wide planting strips. Surprisingly, I managed to achieve that in just over four hours. I arrived at midday and left at five after tidying up. I did find my digging speed, though. The first strip took me 90 minutes due to adjusting the positioning of my body for comfort, the second took me 55 minutes, and the third took me about 33 minutes tops. But I did ache come Saturday morning although come Monday l was okay again.. Double digging improves the drainage and soil aeration of the ground you might want to work with. It involves loosening up two spade depths or layers of soil, which are dug out and then turned over upon themselves. It is a good way of starting the cultivation process of a new plot that has not been worked before or for a very long time. The last time Plot 43 was farmed was in 2020. So, some soil work was long overdue. Of course, my clients can continue with soil strips; however, they have other options, such as introducing raised beds or incorporating permaculture methods into their allotmenteering. I had to strim the plot a couple of times before I could begin the digging, as the grass had grown quite a bit, but that took little time. Sadly, Suze’s grandson had hurt his foot and could not work with me; otherwise, we could have tackled the fence line. Without additional help [shaking loose the sods], it just means that the grass that was turned over and dug into will have to die back organically, but that will occur this coming week. My clients still have considerable work to do to get that soil into an excellent planting medium, but they are now back from Portugal [visited on Sunday as l was working the fence]. If they fork the strips several times over the next two weeks, they will continue to break down, and they can start planting by May. Sunday, the 7th, was dedicated to fixing the fence line. The new galvanised wire was the correct width and height, which meant the wire could be rolled along the posts and secured. Twenty-nine hours worth of work from 19th February to 07th April, but it is now done. I am delighted with the results, and I know Client Avocado is thrilled and eager to start working on their new plot this coming week. It was also a huge learning curve. A few winters ago, we were not experiencing the kind of climatic rainfall we are experiencing now, and the project would have been finalised long before now. However, times change. I wouldn’t mind tackling another plot, but I would probably choose to work on one if given the option of either spring or autumn, maybe not winter again. |
| Getting the strips double dug is all about preparation, edging the cuts first after plumbing the measurements and then digging sticking to the lines you have made so you don’t veer off at strange angles. |
| Thanks for reading. |
Earthly Comforts 
Wow! 4 hours of digging is not an easy job!
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Hey Ribana, you are right, it’s not.
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What an amazing transition, Rory and under such extreme circumstances, too, with all the rain! I’m sure your clients had to be very pleased with your results. You are such an inspiration! Thank you for sharing.
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Thanks Betty, the clients were pleased, thankfully 🙂
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Wonderful! 😊
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Wow! What an amazing transition, Rory. We’ve had rain for the last 3 days but sunshine is predicted for today.
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Hey 🙂
We have had better weather this last week and today was very warm. But it has meant l have been seriously busy.
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Yay, for better weather and being seriously busy, Rory!
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Thanks Eugenia – it has meant longer hours, knackered body hahaha, but also my long range written content is now empty – l have nothing in any post dated slots – oops!
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Oh, oh!
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