Strimming and overgrowth clearance in Alphington

Alphington keeps the shape of the village it was, and the older houses around Church Road and the green have gardens with real size to them. Post-war and later estate housing spreading out towards the A379 has decent plots too, so this is not city terrace work in the way Heavitree or St Thomas often is.

That makes it good ground for a half day booking. Four hours is enough to take a substantial garden back to ground level, clear the boundaries and load the arisings out, and the estimate is easier to get right because the space is open enough to see what is in it.

The brook runs through the low ground here on its way to the Exe, and the whole area is flat and prone to holding water. Growth on the damp side of a plot is coarser and heavier than on the dry, and cutting it after rain is slow going and leaves a scruffier finish.

Where a garden runs down to the brook or a ditch, the last few metres are usually the worst of it: nettle, bramble and self set willow and elder that has come in from the water. That strip often takes as long as the rest of the garden put together.

Alphington runs straight up against Marsh Barton, and there is a good deal of edge where housing, yards and commercial ground meet. Those boundaries grow out fast because nobody is quite sure whose they are, and they tend to get dealt with only when a fence needs replacing or a sightline gets blocked.

Cutting a boundary out so a fencing contractor can measure it is a common half day. Growth is cut back to the line, pulled off the wire and the posts, and the material either taken away or stacked out of the way.

Most of Alphington is straightforward for a pickup and trailer, with drives, verges and estate roads wide enough to work from. The older lanes around the village green are the exception and are worth a word beforehand.

The Exe Valley Way runs close by, and properties backing onto the path often want the strip along it cut back so the boundary is clear on both sides.

The estates built out towards the A379 have regular plots, fenced boundaries and side gates, and they are the fastest work in this part of the city. A machine goes down the side, the cut comes back up the same way and the trailer sits on the drive.

The road frontage is the part people forget. Where a garden backs onto a main road the boundary strip carries road dust, litter and whatever has blown in, and it is worth clearing at the same visit rather than separately.