Personal

What Sunday afternoons are for

Returning from my holiday in February I found a large brown wheelie-bin on my doorstep. On the surface the local council's Ploughback scheme is great: I fill the bin with garden waste and they collect it for composting every two weeks. Back then though, I couldn't see myself generating so much green waste, and wondered where I'd fit the bin that's close to half the size of my garden.

Today for the third fortnight in a row I've filled the bin. Why does everything grow so fast at this time of the year? More to the point, why do I feel I have to cut it all back and keep the garden so trim? Perhaps it's that this is what gives my Sunday afternoons a purpose.