I am available for gardening services, pruning with secateurs and weeding, reducing tree size with the 3 cut method and general tidy up. Scroll to bottom of the page to book me. Remember to include either a telephone number or address. This site is protected and your email will go straight to my private business email address.
Many thanks,
Eat well, and grow something in a pot this year.
Content & Publications:
My volunteering:
Hello,
I have been a keen volunteer all my life, volunteering for my local Catholic church as a Team Leader, in my twenties, volunteering for Help the Aged as a collector, and organising bluebell walks for another cancer charity, as well as managing several charity shops and volunteers myself over the years, after raising a family.
Currently, I volunteer for an arts journal, as I am a writer and have a keen interest in anything creative.
For the past three years I have taken part in the Cycle 300 for Cancer Research UK. More about this in the following paragraph.
Well it is almost September and I have been training for my yearly cycle 300. This year I am decreasing to 200 miles for the month due to two injuries two consecutive years. I hope you will consider donating £5 to this worthwhile cause, as it all adds up. You can see all three years if you visit the page here:
https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/hermiones-cycle-200-fundraising-page-1
Thank you for visiting.
To navigate, go to the “home” page; hover over the images, and you will then see the subject of each post. Right click on the images to read the post and engage with it, should you chose to. Following that, scroll down for the content and the occasional short video, which you can watch depending on your band width over which I have no control. I am told this uploads well. Grab a cup of mint tea, and enjoy. By the way, if you click on the “tags” or “categories“, to the right of your screen, you can find similar content by engaging with the text.
How to:
To navigate this blog/vlog, go straight to the ‘home’ page: http://hermionelaakeloveslavender.org – You can engage by hovering over and then clicking on the images to read individual blogs about my gardening on the ‘home page’. They are a short read; usually a couple of minutes each, so a nice read with a cuppa! Enjoy, and thank you for visiting.
My Story:
My father got me interested in horticulture when he smuggled me into Vine Nurseries in Hampton Court where he was a landscape gardener; I don’t remember a thing about the place, but the Romantic notion of going to work with my father has stayed with me. I used to visit private gardens in Ham and Richmond with him and help him with the weeding and clearing the leaves. I am probably an unconventional gardener, as I learn about gardens by doing. It takes a long time to get to know a garden and you are probably the expert on the light and shade in your garden, so choice of plants is largely up to you, although I can suggest, and will probably suggest lavender, as it is good for bees and easy to maintain, with a regular trim two or three times a year. Hydrangea is good for ground cover too, if you are plagued with weeds, although growth is slow to start with; check out my blog for the exotic Mexican orange, another favourite of mine. We all have our favourites.
When I was about 11 years old I started a gardening business and recruited my sister and her friend to help me. Mostly we were weeding and cleaning fences. Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of being able to work on 6 of my own gardens over the years and each garden has taught me something about the individual climate and temperament that only it possesses. Some of my plants have travelled with me from house to house, but mostly I have started from scratch, as it seems to me that the shape and shadow in a garden suggests species.
Never underestimate the power of an out of control tree to completely alter the climate in a particular patch of the garden. Regular pruning of trees is always advisable. Prune young trees in November or March and prune regularly, depending on the tree and growth; every two years may be sufficient. Maple and birch can be pruned in the summer. Do your research.
Click on ‘Ways to Reach Me’ to find out more about me and gardening services. I don’t do lawns, and I focus on pruning young trees, saplings and shrubs, and general gardening and weeding.
Other Services:
- I am an award-nominated writer; I’m also an editor, and can provide proofreading services, if you happen to own a site and would like a reasonable rate to perfect that.
Book Me:
How to book me:
If you would like to book me for a chat about your gardening needs, please drop me an email, here, and don’t forget to check your spam for a reply. Any consultation that leads to two hours or regular work is free. Please check what I do before you book. Remember, you will need an arborist or tree surgeon for established trees.
hermionelaakeloveslavender.com 