Ah, the nice British summer season. Maybe you’re fortunate sufficient to flee all of it with a vacation, or possibly you’re staying at house and have volunteered to take care of another person’s backyard. Relying on whose backyard, this generally is a vacation of its personal. Different individuals’s gardens can supply loads, novelty chief amongst them. In the event you don’t have entry to your personal open area, taking care of one other’s backyard is akin to borrowing a canine for the weekend, providing you the entire good bits (lazing round, eating alfresco, counting butterflies) with not one of the dangerous (mollusc-based issues, tidying sheds, fox poo). In the event you do have a backyard, another person’s can supply alternative for stealing concepts in addition to new views by yourself. Maybe your beds aren’t doing too badly, in spite of everything.
In case your pal’s sufficient of a gardener to enlist you to take care of their area, likelihood is you’ll have an over-eager listing of directions to observe. If not, these are the essential ones: if it’s been dry, water the containers, the veg patch and the roses; don’t go mad watering the beds or the garden. Ensure you’re watering the soil, somewhat than the leaves, and achieve this both within the morning or the night – something carried out in the course of the day will evaporate earlier than it hits the roots.
In case your adopted backyard is stuffed with flowers, deadheading will likely be key. It’s irritating to return house and discover you’ve missed every part flowering and gone to seed. Deadheading isn’t solely fairly satisfying but additionally comes with the spoils of a bunch to take house with you – fingers crossed for candy peas or dahlias. Use kitchen scissors in case you can’t discover the secateurs and in the reduction of something that’s shrivelled, brown or crispy to encourage new development. If your folks are coming house within the subsequent day or so, reduce the flowers and go away them in a glass on the kitchen desk.
Harvesting fruit and veg is totally extra within the wheelhouse of my fellow columnist Claire Ratinon, but when your folks develop the stuff then there will likely be issues to choose. Courgettes will likely be plentiful, and solely flip into watery marrows if left on the vine; ripe tomatoes must be gently picked and fattening peas and beans can go right into a bowl, too. A salad for you, and maybe a number of bits within the fridge on your buddies to return to.
Finally, although, the reward of taking care of one other’s backyard comes within the reciprocity inherent in good gardening. Gardens are issues to be shared, not stored to ourselves. It’s in the identical spirit as providing a division of a coveted plant, an envelope of seeds from a flower you admired the final time you had been there, a portion of a glut – or a glass of chilled wine on a heat night.
