As we’ve moved into September, work on the garden is slowing. It’s been a brilliant summer and I’ve seen the space move from ‘jungle’ to ‘somewhere I can put a deckchair of an evening’.

Polly, currently re-christened ‘angel of the garden’, has made a super-human effort to clear the upper garden of brambles, matted weeds, nettles, tree stumps, footballs, dead branches, several tones of rocks, two saws, a moving house sign, 100 feet of chicken wire, a dead fox and what looks like a dinosaur bone.

In the process we’ve uncovered some treasures; a few lovely clay pots, now proudly sprouting pansies, three fledgling sycamore trees, two holly bushes still hemmed in by weeds, patiently waiting to be freed, and a pretty stone frog, who now lives on the windowsill. I’ve discovered several big trees on my side of the fence; I now own a couple of ash trees. Well, I say ‘own’, they live alongside me and will happily outlast me. But that’s okay. I’ll just pass them on to the next generation.

I had planned to get a skip to dump all the rubbish, but after some great advice from @CroydonGardener on Twitter, I decided to keep all my findings and just recycle them back into the garden. So the heaps of rocks have formed the basis for raised beds for heather, lavender, bluebells, forget-me-nots, Salvia and purple Campanula. I’ll use some of the wood to set a path in springtime. I may also use some as mulch for future flowerbeds. And maybe keep a few rocks for a rockery next year. Thanks also to House Beautiful and Country Living for great makeover ideas to aspire to.

There’s still about 40 foot of jungle left, but a small path cleared at the side means I can almost – not quite, but almost – see to the end of the space. Maybe next spring we’ll finally break through to uncover what’s at the end of the garden? I’m still holding out for a small family of bears …

Freeing up the garden means I can now sit and enjoy the robin redbreasts who flit around the trees and the three squirrels who play chase every day across the fence. There’s a little mouse who scarpers across the open ground when he thinks I’m not looking – no doubt, he’ll be wanting to move indoors when the weather gets colder …

There’s a still a few working weeks left, then the garden can rest for the winter. I’ll be sorry to see the leaves go and expose me to 15 big windows in the apartment building at the bottom of the garden, but there’s a few lovely evergreens that will still provide cover. And I’m looking forward to the autumn colours, followed by the new winter shape of the space.

For more on September gardening, see our Autumn in the garden feature.

Previously in the garden

Starting off - getting to grips with the jungle

A few weeks later - er, is this how far we've got ....?

Mid-summer - finally making progress, hang on - what's the Acropolis doing here?