Strimming and overgrowth clearance in Budleigh Salterton

The plots here are generous and many have been in the same hands for decades, laid out and looked after by people who did it themselves. When that stops, for whatever reason, the garden does not decline gently: a season of not being able to get out there turns a maintained plot into a clearance job.

Those are careful jobs rather than brute force ones. There is usually structure worth keeping under the growth, so the first pass goes high and the beds, edging and specimen plants get found before anything is taken to the ground.

A fair share of enquiries here come from an owner who is quite clear about what they want and simply cannot do it any more, or from a son or daughter ringing on their behalf. What that usually calls for is a straight answer about how many hours it takes and no attempt to sell a maintenance contract on the back of it.

Cutting a garden back to a point where it can be kept up again with a mower is a perfectly good place to stop, and plenty of jobs here end there.

The Otter estuary and its reed beds sit to the east of the town, and the low ground beside the river is damp all year. Properties on that side get reed, coarse grass and bramble along their boundaries and a heavier, wetter cut than the ones on the slopes.

Above the high street the wooded valley sides rise sharply, and shaded gardens under mature trees have their own problem: ivy, laurel and bramble spreading in low light where grass has given up.

Most properties here have drives and space, so trailer access is rarely the constraint it is in Topsham or Teignmouth. The bungalows on the higher ground are particularly straightforward.

Salt spray reaches the front ranks of housing in winter storms, which knocks growth back nearest the beach, and everything a street or two behind that grows as it would anywhere in East Devon.

The East Devon Way runs close to the town and a number of properties have a boundary onto it or onto one of the footpaths off it. Path side boundaries grow out quickly because nothing keeps them in check, and they are usually a short, easy piece of work.

Bramble is the recurring problem on those edges. Cut back to the line with a blade, dragged clear and either stacked out of the way or taken off, and it stays right for the rest of the season.

Where a large garden has been let go for more than one season, the sensible plan is a first visit to get it back to ground level and a second later in the year to hold it there, which together cost less than one heroic day.