Our host in Tooting today had weeds springing up in various places around her back garden, but was no longer able to get down low enough to get at them herself.

The densest part was in the back corner in what looked like it had been a chicken coop. As it turns out, it was just for growing vegetables, but apparently the foxes liked those almost as much as they do chicken, so it had been wired-off for protection. By now it had grown thick with weeds so it was our first priority. Before I could reach for my phone to take a photo of the rough state it was in, Karen was in there devastating the place with the shears and before long the work was all-but done. We turned over the soil on the last few little bits so perhaps our host can get someone back to do some planting in there – something foxes don’t eat this time. The moment we’d finished, a robin was in there to scoop up any nice morsels we might have exposed.

We turned our attention now to the large area of paving, which had weeds and grasses poking up through all over. Since they hadn’t rooted properly, most came out dead easily just being pulled by hand. Activity was halted briefly, just long enough to admire a ladybird (8 spots per wing case) 🐞

Before we left, our host had me help her tie back a rose that must have been 10’ high. She pulled back the thick thorny branches whilst I crept behind to place the string. Thank goodness she didn’t let go, or I’d have been turned into a colander by the thorns. Whilst we did this, Karen kept the blades of the shears white hot on the large pots, all of which had been overtaken by weeds - then applied weedkiller to the areas of paving that had played host to the weeds.

We took the five bags we’d filled out to the front for collection and left our host to enjoy having her garden back. She had a nice set of garden furniture, but said she’d swerve my suggestion of barbecues and boozing out there, and have some people round to read from The Bible instead.