MY GRANDAD’S SPADE

Amongst the things I inherited from my grandad were several gardening tools that he’d used on his allotment for many years.  It’s possible that some of the tools go back as far as the Dig for Victory campaign, and within the collection is a very odd-looking spade that has such a worn-down appearance that it resembles a lawn edging tool rather than something useful for double digging.

I put the spade to one side for sentimental reasons and hadn’t used it to any great extent until we began to dig out a dead lilac bush at the weekend.  Those of you following this blog will have read that we are removing most of the block paving from our front garden to make room for additional flower and vegetable beds – and one of the things that stood in our way, apart from the bricks, sand and hardcore base, was an overgrown dead lilac bush whose only purpose in life was to act as scaffolding for the bindweed invasion that took place every time we took our eye off it.

However, the weekend put an end to this problem and this is when I finally realised what my granddad had been using the odd-looking spade for.  Over the course of the afternoon (with almost every excavating tool we own strewn across the front garden) it became apparent that its worn-down appearance (and almost razor-sharp edge) was perfect for splicing through the roots of the unwanted bush, enabling us to eventually undermine it and transfer it from its resting place to the “green waste” bin.

It was at this point that I remembered my grandad’s battle with an unwanted apple tree, which took weeks to resolve, a bonfire, several neighbours from the village and most likely some kind of grinding tool to fashion the spade into the effective “root-splicing” tool it has become.  Luckily my brother didn’t push this through the toes of his wellies when he was enthusiastically digging as a kid.  The garden fork did enough damage instead.

Anyway, the lilac bush has been effectively dealt with and was collected by the council yesterday.  Half of the front garden still looks like a building site (see below).  However, the other half is finished and we remain determined to have it ready for our target of Thursday 01 April.