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Last spring was so dry that I didn’t get a chance to treat the green for weeds, but this year I have been waiting for a day which is dry enough! I almost did it yesterday but it was blustery and I was worried about damaging other plants if the wind caught the mixture..
Just as well, since the council grass cutters came round this morning.
Rather than just complain about an unfinished job as I did last month, I put down my work and picked up the shears to cut the long grass that was left, carrying on round to rough cut along the kerb-side too.
I’ve had to leave clearing up for another day since I could hardly hold the shears by the time I finished, let alone a broom… I’m also finding it hard to type so I must be way out of shape! It was still 20 minutes well-spent, although the other council guy could have done the same task in a tenth of the time with his petrol strimmer!
Hopefully I will be able treat the grass next weekend and then we can start to reclaim the green again!
The Council grass cutters came round today for their inaugural cut of the season.
There were two of them, one with a tractor & one walking with a petrol strimmer… though the latter only made it half way up the Close.
The man with the tractor took a leisurely 70 seconds to race as fast as he could around the green, steering well clear of the back edge. Maybe he expected the strimmer man to finish the job but the extra few feet to walk there were clearly too far, let alone actually cutting the grass.
Mind you, SGN has made such a mess of the local verges that there’s almost nothing to cut. Attention to detail is clearly something that neither SGN nor West Sussex County Council are especially bothered about. Shame.
I guess Christmas carol singing on the green is out of the question?
Southern Gas Networks arrived unannounced on Monday last week with a couple of piles of barriers.
That presumably went well as they added to it a couple of days later on Wednesday.
Thursday they dug eight massive holes in the ground, one for every other house.
Saturday we received a letter from Southern Gas Networks warning us that they would, er, shortly be starting work lasting approximately 3 weeks.
By Tuesday we had a series of rain-filled swimming holes, the one shown below being about 5-feet deep and probably holding 80 or 90 gallons of water.
Tuesday night, under cover of darkness, an HGV truck nudged its way precariously into the close (very narrowly missing at least one car that I saw) and offloaded a shipping container onto the green. I’m sure that Southern Gas Networks will be sending a letter warning us about its imminent arrival in due course.
When asked if they had permission to do this, the sum total of the driver’s gruff reply was ‘there’s nothing to stop us‘.
Wednesday the gas feeds to each of 16 houses were replaced and Thursday the arterial gas main was replaced, necessitating our gas being off from 8am… with the two main contract staff working tirelessly from 7am until 11pm on a freezing cold (and later very wet) day to ensure that everyone had gas again.
Incidentally, having achieved this heroic feat, they then set off to drive home to Birmingham for the weekend.
It’s now Friday and all has gone quiet after a brief visitation from a guy who consolidated the rather fetching metal security fence that was erected yesterday. The annexation of the green, which I’m sure we will be warned about in advance (retrospectively that is, if at all?), is now complete.
All that remains is for the (now ten or so) giant holes to be backfilled next week and the pavements restored and then the team will be gone… well, for Christmas at any rate… and leaving behind their assorted paraphernalia as a proxy for carol singers to keep us company during the festive season.
In the New Year the contractors will be working their way around the surrounding area and I can’t see them wanting to relinquish control of their new green any time soon… but who knows? Certainly not us.
This annexation of the green in itself is nothing to complain about, otherwise NIMBYism would have us still living in the Stone Age, but bearing in mind how long these works must have been in the planning, it would have been nice for someone from SGN to say something to the householders in this tiny close.
I wonder whether the SGN customer relations team would have been a bit more communicative had it been their CEO John Morea’s Woodley residence they were setting up opposite? I don’t suppose he would mind them working opposite his house any more than I do, but I reckon the Boardroom air would be blue if they arrived unannounced.
The SGN website shares the following ‘Commitment to our customers‘
‘We are committed to operating to the highest standards of safety, reliability and efficiency. We continually strive to deliver excellent customer service in all areas of our business.’
I would suggest that this is, at best, work in progress, but then maybe shareholders prefer those companies that focus purely on the profit in this age of austerity. After all, customer service is so overrated these days, isn’t it… so 1950s and out of date?
Either way, the England Garden Gang is relaxed and planning on going back to hibernating until what’s left of the green is hopefully relinquished in the Spring.
Season’s greetings to all!
I went to post a letter earlier and had to do a double take when I turned to look at the two greens opposite, shown above after the last visit by the council grass-cutters in late October. This was where the England Garden Gang started work back in July, by cutting back one edge… the kerb on the far side of the road.
That initial foray into edge cutting yielded mud and grass cuttings that filled three bags, each of which I could barely lift, hence I reluctantly worked closer to home from then on.
I always planned to return at some point so I am DELIGHTED to see that someone has worked around the remaining sides and have cut back upwards of 18 inches of thick grass to show a really neat edge.
What a frabjous difference it makes!
But who was the mystery worker? I’d like to think it was West Sussex County Council, but since the green further down the road has not been done (yet?), I wonder if it was another local like me.
Either way… good show, you good EGG!
It’s eight weeks since the England Garden Gang were last at work, the pause due to my not wanting to exacerbate a bad back.
I did smile however when I saw one of my neighbours, whose verge I had not got around to edging, out doing the job himself last week.
For the last few months the bags of cuttings from the edging I did over the autumn have been sitting by my garage, waiting for the compost bin to be emptied. I finally realised that the process was going to take too long to be repeated this year so the dozen or so bags were duly taken to the tip… I’m certain that my neighbours were delighted!
Since the weather was fine yesterday, I went out to turn the compost heap over again and it was interesting to see how it had developed. For starters, it was self-supporting when I took the front off and then, although it’s still not ready to use, it was already a lovely texture.
 
I added air to the mixture as I forked it back into the bin and then as it seemed dry, I emptied a watering can over it. I saw no worms in there, but if they were there then they could probably do with a drink by now!
When I finished, I cut some bamboo screen to cover the green plastic front (which itself was a temporary measure, but works pretty well) and the box now merges a little better into the fence behind.
The England Garden Gang is now going to hibernate over the winter months, but there is a clear action plan forming as to what is going to happen in the spring.
In theory, the edges that were cut this year should only need a minor trim. so hopefully no heavy bags to deal with. Being now able to show the difference it makes and advise what can be done with the cuttings, the plan is then to involve local folk to do a little section each, or at least compost a bag of cuttings.
Any readers who want to participate, please do get in contact.
Either way, have a happy hibernation!
Wednesday 26th saw the return of the council lawnmower man, only five weeks after the last cut.
I now see that West Sussex County Council (WSCC) publish a grass cutting schedule although it doesn’t appear to match up with what we’ve seen over the last few months.
Interestingly, WSCC makes the point that verges are cut at a cost of only £1 per person. Burgess Hill has about 29,000 inhabitants, so one would assume that it could justify spending slightly more time & effort on the task than seems apparent by its current seven (cursory) cuts per year.
In support of this view, it was clear that whilst the lawnmower man did indeed pass through our area, he actually missed out around a third of the slightly less-long grass verges and greens. These could still have benefited from a cut bearing in mind that the next scheduled one is in March 2012!
Sadly the WSCC website justifies not sweeping up cuttings based on the expense (I wonder how much pavements cost to re-tarmac by comparison) and hilariously defends its small number of cuts per year on environmental grounds… total HOGWASH, I say.
Some genuine questions on the subject were sent to WSCC on the 26th and I shall post their reply here… assuming that they do actually reply.
Meanwhile, the unpaid England Garden Gang man is currently still recovering from a bad back. Being a good egg, he’ll hopefully be back in action soon.
The England Garden Gang man has been suffering with a strained back for the last ten days… probably reflecting the perils of lifting something heavy, though exactly what it was I’m not sure.
Since bending down to trim edges is on the list of things that are too painful to do and my lawn-mower neighbour has been away, I was theoretically limited to the length of a long extension lead as to what I could do on Saturday. Thus it was the backstop, a quick trim of the green, that got actioned.
I say theoretically, as the Good EGG man (being a bloke) was not about to let a bad back stop play… so the compost heap was duly emptied and refilled! Aside from the inevitable pain and inflexibility, this was really pleasing, as the compost is already breaking down into a pliable mixture. Another few weeks and I should be able to bag it up ready to use… and start the next load!
It does make a bit of a mess though as there’s more in that box that I would have thought… the picture shows the extent of the pile with most of the compost back in the bin!
The England Garden Gang took a couple of weekends off (to go on holiday and then to recover from said holiday) but was back today with a vengeance.
Although the council had sent their man with a mower around, he’d not done a particularly great job… although to be fair, with seven weeks between cuts the job must have been a tough one.
Figuring that a second cut now would tidy up some of the mounds of grass cuttings and lower the grass height to a level that might make a difference ahead of the autumn, today was a grass cutting day… especially as one of my neighbours had said that I could borrow his petrol mower.
I cut the verge that the council inevitably leaves untouched, then the 5 verges adjacent to the end of the road and then I started on one of the two small greens… the one that always looks untidy.
I had cut each of the verges twice, but there was so much mown grass laying on the green from the council mower that it needed a third cut… at least. I was just starting on the third cut when the lawnmower went phut and stopped… completely out of gas. My neighbour had gone out, so that was that.
I then started to sweep up the cuttings (from the council cutter and me) from the various pavements… an energetic job in itself! I cleared the nettles from the pavement on the bridge eight weeks ago and they were just starting to take hold again so I worked my way quickly through them too.
Overall, my feeling was that the area looked a lot neater than before, although apart from those folk who saw me doing it, most people would be unlikely to notice the difference. Basically, the grass needs to be cut more frequently otherwise it will always look slightly shabby. I’ll see if my neighbour will loan me his lawnmover again in a week or two, but a long-term sustainable difference can only be made if the council changes it’s policy on grass verges.
     
The council lawnmower was clearly taken out for a spin today and we were the (on balance) lucky recipients.
People who look after their grass, like professional gardeners and greenkeepers, apparently cut their lawns twice a week and can thus let the short grass clippings mulch in, at least in certain seasons. I don’t think it works quite that way if you wait 7 weeks between cuts. It certainly doesn’t look so great, neither from about the third week onwards when the grass looks generally unkempt, nor when there’s a thick layer of cuttings spread across the verges and pavements alike.
I suppose I should just be grateful for the grass that was cut, since not all the verges were… it’s all a little random really.
I’m usually pretty good at empathising with the challenges of people in different roles, but how this one can be so difficult to do with flair and care I just don’t understand… maybe someone who is or has been a grass-cutter can enlighten me?
I can’t say that I feel the same joy after my work today that I have done in previous weeks But that’s in the nature of breaking down vast tasks into tiny bite sized pieces. Especially when there is no time-based goal… although I might yet set one. This is week 8 and my initial intention was to work for a year. But the job never really finishes, quite simply because grass continues to grow… and long may it do so.
So it was back to work at the edge earlier where the grass had grown probably 18 inches across the pavement. When the grass is this far over the pavement the real edge is very difficult to find, not least as it is a couple of inches below the surface. Rolling the unwanted turf back was like rolling up a heavy old carpet that had been glued to the floor. A relatively short section of edge yielded four heavy heavy bags of offcuts. There’s already no space in the new compost heap so so-much for having cleared my neighbours view of bags!
There are clear signs of the pavement having deteriorated underneath. I don’t know how much it costs to lay tarmac in the first place, but my sense is that allowing the grass to engulf the pavement does not make good commercial sense for thrifty taxpayers.
I cut half way along the section but by that stage was too knackered to do the rest, so finished it off as neatly as I could, tapering it back to the old line around the corner in the photo below… I’ll come back to do that section properly another weekend. At least the pavement is now wide enough to walk along as a couple… pretty useful for the many older folk who live in the area.
 
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