Finalist Four in Ipswich's Best Garden Competition

Leonie Peasey

I am the custodian of a garden that has not been loved for 20 years. The previous owners belonged to the ‘large trees, woodchip and roundup’ school of gardening – easier to maintain between tenants!

After removing a 22m gum 3m from the house, a 10m ficus planted directly behind a timber retaining wall, digging up monsteras with roots tracking under the driveway and raking up many layers of woodchip, I found grey, compacted, hydrophobic soil, with clay not far from the surface.

A spade was no use – a mattock was my tool of choice, there were no bees, earthworms or frogs.

It has been a labour of love and a voyage of discovery to bring my garden to life. As a novice gardener, my original vision was overly ambitious and I have planted inappropriately at times, which saddens me when I see plants struggling and dying, but I am learning.

Two and a half years on, my garden is beginning to prosper from the planning and hard work – the foundations have been laid and I can build from here.

I look at my garden and instead of seeing how much there is still to do, I sit and appreciate the beauty of the young plants, the butterflies they attract and see an occasional bee and delight in the first green tree frog.

It is still a young garden, with a long way to go, but when I dig over moist friable soil, rich with homemade compost and earthworms, I know that what I have given in labour and love, is being returned tenfold, and will continue for years to come.