At Blooming Marvellous we do regular gardening work in the community. Some of it we do in conjunction with the council and local organisations. That type of work often involves planting and improving green spaces. The rest of our community work is done for individuals who, often through ill health, old age or some form of incapacity are unable to cope with their gardens. It can be a real downer to own a garden and not be able to look after it. So we go in, usually on a one off visit, with anything between 8 - 12 volunteers and help get that person's garden back under control. This mainly involves clearance work rather than planting. We cut back overgrown trees that are blocking out the light, re-edge (and frequently rediscover) paths, strim and cut grass and dig out and remove all the nettles and brambles that can frequently swamp a garden.
We did all of this on the 23rd of September when we tackled a garden in Farnborough for a lady called Sue. Her garden had become very overgrown, so much so that her children were unable to play in it and she couldn't reach her garden shed! It was also difficult for her to hang washing out because the garden was constantly deprived of light.
So we set about tackling the garden. We cut back a mature apple tree that was mostly responsible for blocking out the light. It was a bit of a balancing act because the tree was partly in Sue's garden and partly in a neighbouring field. We could only cut it on one side so didn't want to leave it lopsided and unbalanced. After strategically taking off certain branches we lopped most of the excess growth and managed to get a lot more light into the garden.
Our other work involved strimming the long grass, rediscovering a garden path, cutting back a mix of overgrown trees and shrubs, and clearing some of the guttering. While cutting back the long grass we discovered a bees' nest, which we were careful to leave well alone after Ian was stung the week before! They are obviously harmless unless disturbed, and, frankly, it's good for biodiversity to have these insects in your garden. We just avoided their patch of grass and that was fine.
Sue was really happy to be able to use her garden again, and to reach her garden shed! She kindly made us tea and gave us chocolate chip cookies and a plate of doughnuts, most of which disappeared without a trace!
ey in Farnborough.
At Blooming Marvellous we do regular gardening work in the community. Some of it we do in conjunction with the council and local organisations. That type of work often involves planting and improving green spaces. The rest of our community work is done for individuals who, often through ill health, old age or some form of incapacity are unable to cope with their gardens. It can be a real downer to own a garden and not be able to look after it. So we go in, usually on a one off visit, with anything between 8 - 12 volunteers and help get that person's garden back under control. This mainly involves clearance work rather than planting. We cut back overgrown trees that are blocking out the light, re-edge (and frequently rediscover) paths, strim and cut grass and dig out and remove all the nettles and brambles that can frequently swamp a garden.
We did all of this on the 23rd of September when we tackled a garden in Farnborough for a lady called Sue. Her garden had become very overgrown, so much so that her children were unable to play in it and she couldn't reach her garden shed! It was also difficult for her to hang washing out because the garden was constantly deprived of light. 
So we set about tackling the garden. We cut back a mature apple tree that was mostly responsible for blocking out the light. It was a bit of a balancing act because the tree was partly in Sue's garden and partly in a neighbouring field. We could only cut it on one side so didn't want to leave it lopsided and unbalanced. After strategically taking off certain branches we lopped most of the excess growth and managed to get a lot more light into the garden.
Our other work involved strimming the long grass, rediscovering a garden path, cutting back a mix of overgrown trees and shrubs, and clearing some of the guttering. While cutting back the long grass we discovered a bees' nest, which we were careful to leave well alone after Ian was stung the week before! They are obviously harmless unless disturbed, and, frankly, it's good for biodiversity to have these insects in your garden. We just avoided their patch of grass and that was fine.
