Amy the Gardener

17/04/2025

** URGENT CUSTOMER MESSAGE **
Unfortunately, I have injured my back and will be out of action for a while.
Apologies to my lovely, loyal customers/friends.
I will update you when I can 💚

11/02/2025

It’s nearly time 🤎💚🌿🙌

Only one month until garden waste collections resume! Garden waste bins will be collected every two weeks from March to November, just like before ✔️

You can find out when your first collection is and access your updated bin calendar online. Just enter your address at the link in the comments.

If you have a friend, neighbour or relative who isn’t online, please help us spread the word about the start of garden waste collections. After collections start, just remember to put the garden bin out with the household bin.

01/02/2025

Well as it’s now the beginning of February, I felt it was probably time to begin waking from my period of hibernation. I won’t be picking up my gardening tools for another few weeks yet but the light is beginning to return, the earth is preparing itself for the season ahead and so should I!
Time to sharpen the old Felco’s and replace the fork I broke last season 🤨 might even treat myself to new pair of gloves🧤 (or five).
I will check in with all my regulars over the next few weeks - see you all soon 💚

Oh, and HAPPY NEW YEAR 🥳 🤭

29/10/2024

Due to school holidays and family bereavement, I will be staying at home this week and indulging in some much needed childlike activities 🎃✨🧙🏻‍♀️

Normal service will resume next week and into November, as I begin to wind down for the winter break.

Thank you everyone for your ongoing support this season, it really does mean a lot.

Amy 💚

16/08/2024

Shutting shop for 2 weeks!!
Hoping for warm weather and not too much rain so I don’t return to gardens full of w**ds and knee high meadows 😅🤭

03/08/2024

15/07/2024

Let’s talk WEEDS!! It’s a long one so go grab yourself a cuppa and have a sit down 🙃

The wet and warm(ish) weather that we’re currently experiencing (whilst we all wait very impatiently for British summer time to begin) is wonderful weather for w**ds. Thistles and bindw**d seem to be doing particularly well, along side the usual groundsel, dandelions, euphorbia(spurge) and the rest.

A high percentage of my days on the tools are taken up with w**ding. Let’s be honest, it’s a back breaking, nail breaking and very time consuming, which is why people ask a gardener to come and do it for them.

People often get upset with invasive plants, which root themselves very readily and rudely into spaces where they’re not wanted. They can very quickly take over an area and unfortunately, if left to flower and go to seed… well, you’ll be w**ding for all eternity! 🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱🌱

Each time you allow a w**d to flower and go to seed, you’re basically cultivating it 🙂‍↕️Offering it a home and allowing it to multiply by dropping hundreds, possibly even thousands, of seeds onto the soil below. Once this happens, you’ve had it! These little seeds, happily nestled in your soil, will lay dormant for years, decades 😳

So when I come round to work on your garden and clear borders and planters of w**ds, removing as much root as humanly possible, your garden will look beautiful (if I may say so myself 🤭).

☝️However, I’m not a fairy with magical powers who can banish all unwanted seeds and vegetation. Your new pristine garden will do its own thing and the circle of life will begin again. Weeds will indeed start to grow back and you will have to keep up with the clearance or ask me to come back and deal with it for you.

You could always try to mulch your borders, which will definitely help suppress the w**ds. You can use all sorts of things for this from bark chippings, to strulch (great stuff but not cheap), to slate, gravel or grit. You can even use plants, low growing and dense ground covering plants. Weeds prefer bare ground so will find it more difficult to germinate. Plants need light to thrive, cut off light to the soil by covering the ground. Lots of different ways to help keep the w**ds back.

And yes, you can use w**dkillers (I don’t personally and neither do I encourage it) but they will still grow back, thanks to all those tiny little seeds laying dormant in your soil. Weedkiller isn’t a miracle cure, regardless of how it’s marketed! Neither does it differentiate between a w**d and the pretty flower you planted a few days ago 🫣

I think I’m finished now, if you got to the end, well done and thank you ☺️ 👩🏻‍🌾💚🌱

14/05/2024

Just when we thought the weather had turned a corner, we’re back to wet and blowy again 🤦🏻‍♀️
Planting out in wet heavy soil isn’t the nicest, this lupin can stay in her pot a little longer 💚

29/07/2023

See you in a week or so 👩🏻‍🌾💚

12/07/2023

I love watching these little night time visitors 💚 Safe journey home Mrs.Tiggywinkle 🦔

11/07/2023

Such peaceful surroundings today, working in the garden of St Mary’s Church, Birkin. Such a beautiful little rural village 💚
I do love my job, the hours roll by without me even noticing! It also makes my life so much easier working on sandy soil like this 🙌🏻

10/07/2023

We definitely needed some rain but my poor Hydrangea ’Incrediball’ has taken an absolute battering 😱
Some indoor arrangements may need to be had 💚
Has your garden weathered the storm ok?