This is getting a bit much now! The heat is like Durban. Robert spent the day clearing up the leaves and branches strewn around the garden by the wind of the last week and moved a huge pile of planks to clean up around and underneath, despite his fear of spiders. After we had packed 8 garden refuse bags full of the debris, he then re-stacked the planks, some of them 6m long and some scaffolding planks, then trimmed the odd branch off the trees and cut those up. All in 30 degree plus heat. What a hero! Tomorrow will be more of the same.
The worst part of picking up the branches is that most are from a huge bougainvillea, and if you have ever stood on one of those twigs with bare feet, or a pair of Crocs (which provide absolutely no resistance to thorns!), you will know what I mean. The thorns of the bougainvillea are matched only by those of the lemon tree, on which you could skewer a chop for a barbecue. Coupled with those hazards are two long-dead rose bushes which I chucked down the side of the house last winter, waiting to be burnt on the barbecue and long forgotten under their blanket of leaf detritus. So all round, a pretty dangerous day.
He filled in the mineshaft dug by the porcupine with a pile of broken concrete bits and pieces and threw out two large tree stumps that were quietly mouldering in a corner. The bamboo growing along the neighbouring fence has been chopped back, revealing a further metre or so of garden we didn't know we had and he weedeatered round the shrubs, successfully ringbarking the raphiolepus which was one of the more successful plantings I have had. I hope it survives his enthusiasm.
In return for a month of working in the garden, he gets to pay no board and lodging this month, and it's worth every cent.
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