Six Cheers for the Golfer on Saturday!

Those of you who regularly ramble in the garden with me will know that we have been opening our garden for the National Garden Scheme for the last 3 years and this year are opening it in February for the first time, as well as our usual June openings. This early opening is approaching rapidly and numerous job lists have been scribbled and gradually crossed off. The Golfer, being a gopher rather than a gardener, has his own list of tasks that he can be entrusted with and The Cleaning and Sweeping of Paths is one of them; indeed, if previous years are anything to go by there should be a medal given for TC&SOP, and the Golfer should be an annual recipient of it. At the very least we can give him six cheers on Saturday for his outstanding service!

It always amazes me what a difference this task makes, accentuating the structure and definition of the garden and its borders, and perhaps even more so at this time of year when the structure and hard landscaping of the winter garden already stands out without the softening effect of spring and summer greenery. See for yourself the magic the Golfer has sprinkled over the garden from what I am now calling the Entrance Border above (temporarily called the Fig Border in recognition of the removal of the mature fig tree which allowed space for its creation), to the granite circle of the Blue &White Border near the bottom of the garden (below), and all the paths in between:

From the back of the house we are constantly reminded of his efforts on the Paved Area and the adjacent Streamside and Shrub Border:

The thoroughfare past the Main Borders towards the Woodland Edge has been thoroughly spruced up too, as has the path through the Rose Garden (and every other hard-surfaced path the Golfer could lay his knees on):

With four weeks to go until the open day, no leaf will dare blow onto these immaculate paths, nor any cat flick soil or chippings onto them – and the Gardener will have to be ultra-careful not to leave any evidence of her plantings or prunings or trimmings too! As I admire the Golfer’s handiwork, however, I am mindful of how lucky we are to have been able to lay paths like these around the garden, enabling ready access in all weathers, unlike those bloggers who currently struggle to ramble in their own gardens due the effects of continued rainfall and the resultant waterlogging and bogginess.

Six tidy paths and six cheers for the Golfer are my contribution to today’s Six on Saturday meme, hosted by Jon the Propagator.