England. May to September 2018
1. Toddington.
Having met with the letting agents once our tenants had left we agreed that a lot of work needed to be done inside and out. We stayed in our van on the drive as there was no furniture in the house.
Inside, as well as a thorough clean and painting throughout we needed some new carpets and flooring and new work surfaces and tiles in the kitchen.
Outside we agreed that the 'jungle' needed to be cleared and mostly layed to lawn. We left all the inside work to be done by the professionals and spent most of our time sorting out Kevin's large workshop and, with the help of Steve Maskall (a friend who has recently started a garden service business) re-doing the garden.
Amongst our time there we had several committments which we wanted to keep so tended to spend a few days at Toddington and then go away for a few days, either back to my sister's, up to The Lake District or to Norfolk plus a trip down to The New Forest Folk Festival.
As far as the garden is concerned I think the following before and after photos say it all!! By the time we left all ll that needed to be done was to complete the lawn. We had put down a small area of turf so the new tenants had some lawn. Steve then seeded the rest of it at the end of September.
Greenhouse and gravel area. This was one of the longest jobs as I had to remove the weeds and some plants, move the gravel so that I could put new underlay down and then put back most of the old and some new gravel. The greenhouse door was replaced and it was painted.
I removed all the ivy from the back fence, power- washed the flags and painted the deck, fence and trellis . The 'pond' was filled in, rockery removed and gravel replaced the bed in the centre of the flags.
We removed the coal bunker and the ficus plant between the house and workshop.
Clearing the Shrubs and trees.
Steve used his chain saw to cut down the shrubs and trees which had got very overgrown.
His large shredder reduced most of the branches to chips.
We had 3 m
All but 1 tree and a few shrubs by the fence removed.
Next job was for Steve to remove the roots - hard work.
Kevin and Steve had to remove a fence panel in order to remove a large elderflower shrub that was growing between the workshop and the fence, the fence rails also needed replacing. Removing it was easy enough but they were only just able to squeeze beteen the fence and workshop in order to get it back in place.
In the allyway next to our fence with the fence panel removed and the elderflower cut down to ground level and poisoned.
Removing the panel was easy enough but they were only just able to squeeze beteen the fence and workshop in order to get it back in place.
Relaxing. As the weather was so good we often took the opportunity to have a BBQ in the back garden.
Last updated: February 2021