Without this team of helpers, I’d never have got through the summer — there’s so much to do here — mowing, weeding, watering, weeding, mulching, pruning, edging — did I mention weeding? Honestly, without help, I’d go crazy: from April to November the workload is steady. (Have I ever mentioned how relaxing I find November? One of my favorite months of the year, and I’m not kidding.)
With me on the bench are Shane (left) and Stephane, top, my friend, Shelly
Missing from the picture is my husband John, whose contributions to the general garden welfare are most essential — otherwise how could I pay my helpers? (Garden writing isn’t that lucrative.) And, of course, John manages his rock garden, which the team sometimes waters and weeds for him, but he does his own planting and transplanting.
Shane and Stephane have fallen in love with Toby, and vice versa
The weeding team hard at work on the garden paths
Finding good garden help:
At first I didn’t think it was possible to find part-time help, as I always assumed that everyone is looking for full-time summer job, but through Craigslist it hasn’t been that difficult.
Part-time actually works well because summers are hot, and I can’t imagine asking someone to weed for eight hours straight in any case. Shelly comes two mornings a week, and the boys have been working four- or five-hour shifts, usually Monday to Wednesday. And if the mowing doesn’t get finished on those days because of rain, I do it myself later in the week, or we might swap a day and work Thursday. What appeals to everybody is this: Friday is always off!
When you work for me and you’re a gardener, you get plants and divisions to take home; if you’re not, lots of hort training — the boys learned to prune artistically, mow neatly, and edge properly. On top of that, there’s always excellent coffee, a decent boss, if I say so myself, and the company of a lovely dog who likes nothing better than hanging out with the weeding team.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s interesting to me to hear what is required to maintain your extensive gardens. How many man-hours a week do they require in summer, would you say?
Great pics too, BTW. I love seeing people in the garden. So often blogs show only plants, not people enjoying them (or working on them).
Hi Pam: I would say that it takes roughly 40 hours a week in the summer to keep the gardens maintained and the lawn mowed. The maintenance tapers off in the fall, when the weeding finally lets up. (It rained a lot this year, so the weeds kept coming up.) I would also say there are more weeds in the country than in the city because of all the seeds that blow in, sow thistle, for example.
The garden chores ease off starting in September. I don’t do a lot of fall planting because I’m kind of tired of gardening, and we get problems with frost heave. But if there areas of the garden not working out, I remove those plants in the fall and leave the space to be replanted in the spring. We just removed a bunch of daylilies that I was not happy with. I’m actually pretty laissez-faire about dividing perennials, and we don’t do a lot of deadheading. I let a lot of plants self seed around. I like that meadow style of perennial garden that’s kind of loose and wild.
The biggest fall job is taking care of leaves and actually that is quite easy: I use my big ride-on mower to chop the leaves into the lawn. We don’t rake or collect them unless absolutely necessary.
Hi Yvonne! this is very unrelated to the subject but I noticed your enourmous blue obelisk in the background. It looks gorgeous filled with clematis! I’ve been thinking of creating something like that, I’ve got just the spot! Did you purchase the obelisk? I’ve never found anything that large. I was thinking of building one, I am somewhat handy. Do you cut that clematis down each year? Or is that many years of growth that makes it look so full? Regardless, it’s beautiful and I hope you don’t mind me emulating the look! I was thinking a rusty red colour!
Hi Stephen: That particular obelisk was featured in Martha Stewart Living magazine a number of years ago, along with plans and a diagram of how to build it. A friend of mine made them for us. They’ve been in the garden so long that they are beginning to fall apart, unfortunately.
Hi Yvonne, I stumbled across your website and enjoyed viewing it. If only I could have part-time garden help. I try, in vain, to maintain my own yard, a garden at my son’s and garden’s at my parents. They got away from me this summer. The heat was too much to work in after a regular 8 hr. work day. I worked for a landscape company for a couple of years and spent many 8-10 hr. days pulling weeds in 90 degree heat. It’s not fun!
Seeing your youtube video was a big help to me. I’m planning a trip to Scotland and was wondering about the video quality of a flip camera, your video was sharp and clear. I’ll have to look into it further. If you can learn youtube, then I guess I can too – I just turned 54. I feel like technology is leaving me in the dust!
Hi Bonnie, and welcome. You say you feel that technology is leaving you in the dust! Me too — I feel that all the time. I’m being dragged kicking and screaming into web video. The flip camera is quite good enough in terms of picture quality, and it is dead-easy to use. The software for editing (which my friend who owns the camera did for me on that video) isn’t too bad; it’s easy to use for editing, if somewhat cumbersome and quite limited. The one important thing you don’t have with the flip camera is a jack for a microphone, so sound recording isn’t the the greatest. That’s my experience so far, for what it’s worth.
Yvonne – This is a lovely thank you to your garden helpers. It’s a labour of love (and sweat, obviously) to keep gardens like yours looking so beautiful! And a nice education for the guys, too!
J
Just looking at the background, your gardeners are doing perfectly well.
{ 1 trackback }