Garden clearance in Hammersmith & Fulham.

Small gardens, and only one way out.

Space is tight on this side of the borough. Brackenbury Village has little yards behind its cottage terraces, and a fig tree or a bamboo can take one over in a couple of years. The roads around Wendell Park and Askew Road have longer plots, but they’re thin ones, with brick walls down both sides and nothing but the house between them and the street.

That shapes the job. Nearly every W6 and W12 mid-terrace has no side access, so green waste comes out through the hall in bags. We fill them to a weight we can carry, put sheets down on the way and keep it moving, so nothing piles up indoors. A small garden can make a surprising number of bags.

The overgrowth here tends to be a certain sort. Ivy climbs the shared walls, buddleia seeds itself in the brickwork, and bamboo spreads under the fence from next door. We cut it back and clear what’s underneath, which often means finding broken pots, a rusty barbecue and whatever the last tenants left. All of that goes in the van as well.

Flats add a question: who actually owns the garden? In a split terrace, the ground floor may have it on the lease, or it may be shared. In a block, the managing agent will have a contractor. Check before you book, particularly if you plan to cut anything back hard against a boundary.

Green waste goes for composting wherever possible. If you’d like it kept under control afterwards, a spring and an autumn visit is enough for a lot of these gardens.