Tangle taming, hedge-trimming, de-lousing and other joyful pursuits including AN EMPTY HOUSE. 🥳
Hello friends!
You thought I’d gone yes? Ha! No, I took a long break because #hellidays and the fact that I wasn’t at home doing any gardening. I figured if I sent you newsletters about life on a Welsh beach it might be the last straw. But I DID get back a week ago, and I thought I’d write a quick run-down of all my joyful pursuits, interspersed with a good blob of the less lovely ones (just in case any of you thought I lay on a chaise longue in a negligee for the 23 hours and fifty five minutes in which I am NOT gardening).
So, here goes:
Hedge trimming
Ahh the satisfaction of wielding the hedge trimmer after some time away and you get back to your privet looking decidedly fluffy. Don’t get me wrong, I like fluffy, but entranceways, in my humble opinion, need a firm hand, and besides, my neighbours had trimmed their side already. A note on this: my previous neighbours and I had a sort of unspoken rule that we would take turns with pruning our shared hedge. I rather loved this approach but I also value having agency over ‘my side’ – this year I’ve been pruning pretty hard in one area to accommodate a new gate, and so uncharacteristically I don’t mourn this neighbourly agreement.
Chopping
Speaking of neighbours, I have one who planted a vitis cognetiae at the end of her garden, part of which backs onto mine. I love vitis, but golly it’s a brute. Every year it threatens to strangle and submerge my precious hornbeams (not insubstantial in themselves) and this year is no exception. This lady is a formidable one, and whilst I’m able to stick up for myself, I really don’t fancy asking her to prune – my instinct just tells me this won’t end well. It’s becoming obvious though, that I may have to broach it…like, KNOCK ON HER DOOR AND SAY SOMETHING. Shall I do it? Shall I? If anyone’s interested in this, you are actually required by law to ‘offer’ any prunings that you cut from your side to the neighbour who owns the plant. This does NOT mean dumping the prunings over the fence or wall, and it’s actually a law that harks back to the appropriation of fruits from any tree that overhangs your property. The long and the short of it is, as with most neighbour ‘problems’ that it’s never not better to work it out cordially, over a cup of tea than to let your inner rage get the better of you and start getting legal. You’re welcome.
De-lousing
Oh my ACTUAL god the LICE this holidays! I think my children got them in Greece and in my book-obsessed, neglectful holiday stupor I didn’t notice until my poor au pair properly saw them crawling about on my son’s head one hour in to the six hour car journey to North Wales. Friends, there were enough lice on that child to infest the land of Ynys Mon and then some. Although I hate the idea of spending my precious time hovering over my children with a nit comb, when I actually begin, it gives me PROPER satisfaction. I love catching the insects, depositing them on a hard surface and rolling my thumbnail purposefully over them, feeling and hearing the pop…same with the eggs. Seriously guys, don’t knock it, particularly if you’ve got a glass of wine handy. Not so massively keen on combing my au-pair’s head, but she was so down in the dumps and stuck in a tiny Welsh beach house with my family so I kind of felt like I had to. Eeek. 😬
Dead heading
Speaking of death, I’ve been having a similarly jolly time with my daisies, still going strong because I deadhead and water regularly. Does that sound smug? It probably does, but this typifies the good results that come from a daily five minute burst. The blooms are rather more sparse, and slightly smaller than before but no less gorgeous for that. I use an automatic watering system for these pots, without which they would most certainly have kicked the bucket by now, and nail scissors to remove the spent blooms, whilst I sit on a child’s chair.
Taxing and chattel-ing
Yes, I had to breathe deeply and pay my tax bill, and, partially driven by an horrific family tragedy, finally finish my will, which has been put on the back-burner for months, because I can’t deal with this ‘list of chattels’ that I’m supposed to make. It’s not like I have lots of chattels – it’s just that it makes me stop and think about what on earth my children would do without their mother…I mean, I’m INDESPENSIBLE, NO? WHO WOULD DE-LOUSE THEM? WHO?
Mowing and tangle-teasing
This year’s mowing has taken rather longer (though not much longer) than last year when I allowed the middle part of my lawn to grow long and shaggy, meadow-style. That didn’t happen this year as there is to be a family party in the garden and I want to keep the ground as bump-free as possible. Mowing around the stipa at the base of my three lawn trees has been a bit of a challenge, until someone brilliant told me to tangle tease the grasses, removing the extra weight from the stems. I was sceptical but it worked – recommended if you have a bit of spare time and the need for un-floppy stipa. My daughter was a bit put out that her hairbrush was full of grass but hey…
Watering
As the weather has turned less scorchio I’ve reduced my watering-can forays (mainly to my pots of summer squash) to every other day. I’ve loved watching (and eating) the results of this incredibly simple project and will be doing the same next year as I am now officially….
Pergola-ing!
Two years after my initial contact with the blacksmith, I am finally the proud (oh so proud) custodian of the loveliest circular, gazebo-type pergola in the whole wide world. It has an actual CROWN at its top (I had asked for a pineapple but look, I’ve waited two years and I’m FINE with a crown okay?!) I’ve tried in vain to get a good shot of the whole thing – it just doesn’t do it justice, (see above) so you’ll all have to believe me that it is STUNNING and wait until it’s covered in jasmine before you oooh and ahhh. I am constantly amazed at how ENCLOSING a space actually makes it look more generous…it’s as if you capture a bit of sky and bring it nearer, by creating a barrier to it. So odd. Anyhow, I am thrilled and will be planting as soon as possible.
Two out of three of my kids have gone back to school, with the last one starting ‘big school’ on Tuesday, and doing half days until her first full day on Friday next week. I am loving the soft start but, well, let’s just say it messes slightly with my rampant desire to get back to some semblance of a routine. I am a total unapologetic Septemberhead and I know I’m not the only one. Pretty much every adult at the school gates is playing the September game: the one where you pretend you’re sad the holidays are over and talk about what BLISS it all was when actually you are doing a little fist-pumpy jig inside your soaring heart as you bid goodbye to the small people. Some of us admit to being ‘ready’ for the beginning of term, eyes ruefully looking askance and mouths pulled into a grimace. Of those lucky enough to work from home, not one of us will let on that the first couple of hours on that first day will probably be spent prostrate, on the sofa, soaking up the glory of an empty, silent space.
As always, do hit reply if you want to ask, comment or chat. I've missed writing these letters and it's good to be back.
X Laetitia
Next week I’ll be back with my Autumn list, but until then you may have missed:
Harvesting for an easy life
Late summer flowers to consider for next year
The Lavender Lowdown: How and when I chop for hummocky glory
My homemade cleaning sprays