Topic: Some people should not be allowed to have gardens.

[ACE]

I was asked to have a look at a garden today. As they were busy people, playing on their boat, skiing, shooting etc. they had decided to make their garden low maintenance.

All the flower beds were covered in mypex weed suppressing fabric and every thing that had been planting was ground cover. Unfortunately they had also planted 20' bamboo at the back of the beds.

The lawn has been sprayed with a growth retardant  and was really a patch of dead grass and weeds. They asked me if I could makeover the garden as they were having people in over xmas.

The last time this garden had been maintained properly was five years ago so the bamboo had crept under the mypex and was popping up everywhere and had built up a mass of creeping roots that had stangled every thing except the vinca, which was doing its own thing strangling the shrubs.

Shrubs is a nice word for what they had growing, sort of leggy sticks with spindly  tops.  Well the look on their faces when I told them it would take a month just to clear it all. ' We though you could do it in 3 days like they do on the telly' was their reply.

This is one job I shall not be taking on.

[manicscousers]

 :o :o :o it's amazing how ignorant some people are !!

[cambourne7]

DOH!

people belive this is easy ! thats why there is such a high drop out rate for allotment holders.

[Robert_Brenchley]

That's the problem with those stupid makeover programmes; they encourage that sort of nonsense.

[saddad]

Sounds like a reasonable source of free canes though!
 ;D

[ACE]

Not that cheap for them, If I was to do a job like that it would cost £15 to £20 thousand. After the cost of hiring diggers, skips, labour and new plants there would not be a lot of profit in for me.

If any of you want to grow your own canes it is quite easy and fast. There are hundreds of varieties and some of them are quite nice. I think the non-invasive types are just slower and easier to manage and if left alone will still take over.

I dig a trench right around where I am going to plant a clump. Then I place old slabs upright all around with no gaps and sticking out of the ground about 2 inches. You can use old tin, but  slabs last for ever. As the roots do not go too deep, just slide a spade down the side of the joins in the slabs every now and again to stop anything escaping. Bamboo does make a very nice screen and windbreak but it has to be done properly. The large plants are usually free as people are always trying to get rid of it.
Don't just bung a clump in, and don't put any on your compost heap.

[Robert_Brenchley]

There's a sort of bamboo hedge on a deserted plot on my site; it must have been there for a good many years, and it hasn't invaded at all. So some sorts are fairly benign, but I'd be cautious about planting any bamboo.

[Mrs Ava]

Blimey Ace!  I have just spent a week clearing a garden back to nothing - and that was only overgrown brambles and sloe tree saplings!  It was a killer and a labour of love.  In the spring we are levelling and turfing so the old couple can keep it under control.  I have also started to maintain a garden for a couple who don't sound that different from yours Ace.  It could be a job for life!!  :-\

[ACE]

  It was a killer and a labour of love. 

But don't you feel fitter and satisfied when you look back at it.

[Doris_Pinks]

I have just taken one on too that is......well a bit of a disaster.........HUGE garden, (they have a ride on mower) and an inherited vegetable patch at the bottom of the garden the size of which would be fought over by many allotmenteers.
It has 2 beds, one running on the right hand side, and full of........well clay from when they put in the conserve, and dumped it on the I am sure once well established garden, and the other bamboo filled!
The only other real greenery are some huge hideous laurel hedges...................................BUT since I have been visiting they are getting a bit more enthused and there was even mention of taking down the laurel hedges to see to the back of the garden, so maybe there is hope for some! ;D ;D
(they also have a big apple tree, I got to pick up all the apples cos she didn't know what to do with them! :o )