Shear come the Men in Black, garden tree defenders

Today two of Islington's finest jetlagged Men in Black united to help a local neighbour keep up with her garden maintenance

Steve and I met with "Glenda" (not her real name) on this Saturday morning after I'd parkran and roled while Steve was shaking off jetlag.

I'd helped Glenda a few times so knew my way around.

Glenda is a keen gardener and very houseproud though has been finding it hard to keep up with the maintenance when she became a widow and also has back issues and problems with asthma and pollen. Here come the Men In Black to help Glenda out and give her garden a makeover she would remember.

Back to front

We saw the back garden first but decided to mix things up and went to work on the front garden first.

Here, local hero Steve was tasked with removing a seductive but destructive Honeysuckle which was home to a few bumble bees but making it hard for the rose bush to grow. He also chopped back an overgrown bush for easier access to the patio.

Down the other side I was clearing up Moss Side Islington (rather than Manchester). I was scraping the moss and removing weeds from around more roses and peonies.

Hour in, catching up after our respective holidays, lots of tunes including the word "black", and we'd filled two huge bags of green waste.

The back end of the job

We then tackled the odd jobs in the back garden which involved some heavy lifting to remove rotten wood from the barbecue area and to protect Glenda's shed from any rain. We also took on finer weeding and a bit more moss for good measure.

Just as we were wrapping up our lovely host, Glenda, brought out a bowl of melon! What a refreshing treat !

Glenda was really thrilled with the work of the MIB and appreciated our efforts. We bade her farewell and went off to enjoy the rest of our respective weekends.