Sarah - Serenity Gardening

Telephone (evenings and weekends): 01752 263723

Mobile : 07896 537907

E-mail: sarah@serenity-gardening.com

The garden maintenance services I cover are:

• Weeding - Flowerbeds, walls and pathways.  Taking back or taking out unwanted ivy.  I will help to transform your tired looking flower beds into stunning and attractive garden features that you will be proud to show off to your friends and family.
• Pruning - Shrubs I will prune your shrubs at the appropriate time of the year. 
• Dead heading - Spent flowers.  This helps the plants produce more flowers for you to enjoy.
• Lawn Maintenance - Providing help to keep your lawn in tip top condition.
  • I cut grass to the specified grade for the time of year, this will help to keep your grass looking its best throughout the year.  
  • Lawn egding, this keeps your flower beds separate from your grass and therefore defines your flower bed.  I use a traditional egding iron, which can be used to cut the grass in a number of ways, from straight lines to curves.  
  • Weed/feeding your lawn is important, as this keeps your grass lush and weed free.  I use an environmentally friendly product which will leave your lawn looking wonderful. 
  • When drainage is a problem and water is not draining away quickly and your lawn is a abundance of moss and weeds.  I use a tried and tested traddional method by making holes in the lawn with the use of a fork.  The fork is push into the lawn peridically around the lawn and wriggled back and forth before lifting the fork out.  This method has been used for years for great results.
• Applying feed - I use recommended environmentally friendly feed (organic chicken manure).
• Planting - Annuals (bedding plants), perennials (hardy and semi hardy plants), shrubs, small trees and bulbs within the given season.  I always use plants from plymouth’s local garden centre located at crownhill, as the plants are healthy, well attended and reasonablelly priced.
• Double Digging - This method is intended for newly dug/designed beds and is a fairly traditional technique of gardening.  However it could be considered the most effective way of ensuring all the nutrients reach the roots of the plants / shrubs / trees, as a thick layer of compost is placed into a number of trenches two spits deep.
• Mulching - This is where a thick layer of compost is evenly applied over the required area to provide a good source of nutrients for existing plants / shrubs / trees.  I apply this in autumn/winter.
• Laying wood/bark/stone chippings - This is good for suppressing weeds for a considerable amount of time and will look very attractive against your plants / shrubs / trees.  However I would suggest applying a layer of membrane before covering the area with the chippings, as this will stop the weeds from coming through the chippings.  
• Airation - This improves the drainage and prevents compaction of the soil and allows the plant roots to grow easily through the soil.  This is achieved by turning the soil over with a hoe and done periodically through the year.

In order to keep your garden looking its best I will endeavor to tidy as I go, minimizing any mess.  

Welcome to Serenity Gardening

 I am a fully qualified female gardener with over 5 years experience within the Horticulture field.  I specialise in “Green” and “Organic” gardening techniques / maintenance.  All areas of Plymouth and surrounding towns and villages considered.  If you would like a helping hand with your garden now and again, or need your garden regularly maintained why not get a free consultation today.

Telephone (evenings and weekends): 01752 263723 

or

Alternatively send me an e-mail sarah@serenity-gardening.com

 Allotments

If you are interested in starting your own allotment or have enough space of your own to grow vegetables/fruit/flowers.  Then look no further as i have just be given my first allotment in December 2009, so why not follow me through the many stages of preparing my plot of land.

 I will be giving hands on advice not from a book, but from my own experience from working on my allotment.  It’s sure to be both funny and rewarding. 

You can access various gardening information on this site, quickly and easily, this website is updated on a regular basis except when I am really busy, so don’t wait too long before visiting again.

Okay, so how did I get interested in gardening, I hear you say….

Well, firstly my name is Sarah, I have been working within the Horticulture Environment for a number of years. 
I first became interested in gardening as a child when I used to stay with both my sets of grandparents, one set lived in the country, they had a bungalow in Camborne (Cornwall) and I used to help my grandad grow all his own vegetables, fruit, plants and shrubs.  Although I must admit that harvesting and eating his produce interested me more than actually preparing the ground and sowing the seeds.  I would much prefer to be captivated by the ever present wildlife in their garden, especially the abundance of ladybirds which all seem to be attracted to the conifers at the front of the garden and the huge number of snails that attached themselves on the walls under foliage and the brave beatles making a dash from stones I had turned over to find something interesting. My grandad used have me in uncontrollable laughter as he jumped up and down with fustration as the cheeky birds swooped down to eat the newly sown seeds, every now and again my gran and I would hear the noise of my grandad in the garage making a new contraption to scare the birds away from his veg and fruit patches in his never ending battle with them. 

Ooh and there was my Gran’s anitrimums (snap dragons) a vision of hazy colours, yellows, orange and red colour with their heads swaying in the breeze.  I used to press the heads together to make them snap like a dragon (hence the name),  this used to fascinate me for hours, well probably not that long.  I also used to love popping the heads of fuchsias that had not yet opened, the noise sounded so satisfying; and then to see the display of brightly coloured petals, obviously to the annoyance to my gran who would shout from the sitting room. 

My other set of grandparents lived in the city of Leicester, it was my grandad who was the avid gardener who enjoyed growing an assortment of plants and veg. The two that stick out most in my mind were tomatoes and hollyhocks; the hollyhocks were amazing, huge stems and the most beautiful blooms I’d ever seen.  

As my second set of grandparents lived in the city, garden space was at a premium so they had just enough space for a few pots, a shed and a small plot of land, but my grandad certainly made good use of the space, he would spend a few hours a day pottering around his shed and admiring his plants.

In fact I remember most of my family have at one stage or another being interested in gardening especially growing vegetables and fruit.  My aunt and uncle who live in the city of Leicester too, are really passionate about gardening.  Their house has a large back garden and is beautifully kept, they have a few plum and apple trees.  They also have a huge vegetable plot and used to grow all their vegetables.    

For me though in my early years, it was true nature and the countryside that fascinated me, still does, I just love being outdoors; from camping out in the rough terrain to long walks in the forests, woodland and not forgetting the beach too.  I found it wasn’t until my early thirties that the true passion of growing and then learning about plants took hold of me and “I haven’t looked back since”.  For me I enjoy nothing more than being wrapped up in a warm coat with my old wellies on and a trowel in my hand, heading off for a spot of gardening outside on a cold crisp day, with sun dazzling through the trees.