Gardening with Gael - Less mowing, more landscaping at The Block

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First of all relief, which slowly turned into happiness and excitement as the sale of the three front cottages became unconditional. This means more time to write and to spend in the garden at the Block. For Box it means the reality of the Block Cottage.

The workshop is stocked with the materials he has been collecting for years. The foundation piles, the bearers and joists are already in place and with some temporary flooring nailed on top, we can stand and view the garden.

Although there were always sticks in the ground for me to work with, the reality of the size and height of the building is something else. The terraces do flow away from the house as planned and Lombard St trails down to the front door exactly as I envisaged. The main difference is the front lawn, half the size I thought it would be. “Less mowing,” said Box.

The cottage site was cut out of the hill leaving a bank behind to be landscaped. This is to the right of Lombard St on the way down and I have always had plans for it. With the profiles of the cottage in place I am able to address the bank. School holidays provide a great labour pool of college boys. Why go to the gym when you can heave rocks around on the block I say. With help on various days from Joe, Tom and George the rock terraces below Lombard St are forming just as I had planned.

To complement the olive trees on the left hand side I had needed some pencil pine shaped plants. The one at the chocolate factory seemed to do well. Thuja occidentalis ‘Smaragd’, originally from Denmark, is one of the most popular pyramidal trees in the world. They require little if any maintenance and are happy in any well drained soil. And… they keep their shape. I do love cupressus sempervirens gracilis’  the pencil pine most commonly used in Mediterranean gardens but they lose their shape when branches tend to ‘fall out’.

To create the right look I bought two sizes – three large ones which I would never have got planted without Tom and George, and some smaller.  Grand daughter Beatrix loves them. She thinks they are Christmas trees just waiting to be decorated.

“Shall we put things on them now?” she asked as she skipped down the path.

Although thujas are relatively trouble free, one of the big ones at the chocolate factory had to be replaced after it was severely eaten by bag moths hidden among the branches.

The sale has also meant that it is time for me to say goodbye to my well loved and very battered pink car. Box has done the deal with trading it in.

“Here’s your colour choices,” he said as he gave me the pamphlet.

“I am not sure about driving around in a blue car,” I said picking the best of a bunch of colours I am not that enchanted with.
“Well I have been driving around in a pink car for a while,” said Box. “You’ll manage.”

With our first car he said, ”No plants in this car.”

“Really?” I replied.

The next one he said, “Shall we try and keep plants out of this car?”

This time he hasn’t mentioned them.
 

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