Homes in Whitchurch Lane, Edgware left with ‘building site’ behind gardens

5:23pm Tuesday 30th July 2013 in News

By Bruce Thain

People with their homes backing onto the Hive football stadium have been left with a “building site” in their back gardens due to unfinished landscaping work.

Homes in Whitchurch Lane, Edgware, have had an access route used by maintenance company Tube Lines for work on the embankment of the Jubilee line, behind their homes since last year.

The work on the embankment has been completed, but residents who were told the route would be landscaped say they have been left with a building site behind their homes.

Landscaping has yet to start and there is confusion among home owners as to whether the leaseholders Barnet FC or Tube Lines are responsible for carrying out the work.

Shirley Sackwild, secretary of Canons Park residents association said: “It is causing an eye sore – I have a building site at the end of my garden with temporary cabins and toilets.

“It has been a whole year with nothing being done to finish this work and we’ve been looking out over it since Christmas. We’re very upset and put out.

“They (Tube Lines and Barnet FC) need their heads banged together. As far as we’re aware they’re in a stalemate.

“I think Harrow Council should step in to get things moving as they are the landlords of the site. We’re not privy to the reasons for this stand-off but we’re the innocent bystanders that have to put up with this mess.”

Steve Judd, manager for environment and operations at TfL, said: “To complete this essential work, we have replanted more than 600 trees on the site between Cannons Park and Queensbury to reinstate the embankment.

“In addition, before replanting we consulted with local residents about providing the best kind of wildlife-friendly trees and flowers for the area.”

He added that TfL was in discussion with Barnet Football Club concerning the landscaping of the access route to the embankment.

The Harrow Times has contacted Barnet FC about the landscaping but the club declined to comment.

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Elizabeth Wheale spends winters on the ski hill and summers working outside in other people’s yards.

The 28-year-old recently finished a landscape gardener apprenticeship and started her own business, Fair Haven Landscaping. The Red Deer-based company services central Alberta, including rural areas, completing projects ranging from building retaining walls to starting flower gardens from scratch.

Landscape gardening is a red seal trade that requires a four-year apprenticeship, including a minimum of 1,200 hours of on-the-job training and eight weeks of technical training each year.

Wheale grew up on a farm and enjoyed working outside, including a winter job as a ski instructor. But she hadn’t considered a career in the landscaping trade until she started working for a local company.

“Originally I was actually planning to go to the United Kingdom and do a bachelor’s degree in theology and youth work,” Wheale remembers.

However the program she had her eye on didn’t start until June and Wheale’s ski instructor job had finished for the season, leaving her looking for work for a few months. She ended up at a Red Deer landscaping company, where the owner encouraged Wheale to consider an apprenticeship. “He saw the potential there and told me about the apprenticeship and said I’ll hire you for the summer, but I want you to do an apprenticeship. I hadn’t been totally sure about moving to the United Kingdom, and once

I started working it made sense to stay,” she said.

She finished her apprenticeship with top marks and earned the Top Apprentice Award in 2011 for landscape gardener.

Landscape gardeners can work for a variety of employers, including landscape architects, contractors, nurseries, tree farms, greenhouses, cemeteries, governments, garden centres and landscape supply outlets.

Others, such as Wheale, are self-employed.

“I enjoy the challenges that come from different people and their different preferences. I get bored easily so it’s nice to have variety,”

she said. Still, Wheale points out that starting a business comes with challenges.

“It’s thinking through the estimates and cost evaluations and valuing your own time and deciding what hours you’re willing to work and what type of work you’re willing to do. There’s lots of logistics you have to work through and you’ve just got to do it, and any entrepreneur is like that,” she said.

Wheale said one of the biggest challenges she’s encountered so far is getting customers to understand they get what they pay for.

“Cheap is out there, it’s just not skilled,” Wheale said.

Educating customers about the finer points of landscape gardening is something that Wheale enjoys.

“I think education is a huge thing. As the world moves more to organics and ecologically friendly practices, it’s even more important to have skilled, trained people,” Wheale said.

Laura Caddy has also made a career out of working with plants. The red seal landscape horticulturist works year-round at the Devonian Botanic Garden, southwest of Edmonton.

“I’ve been gardening since I could walk,” said Caddy, who worked in greenhouses in Red Deer after finishing high school.

“I was more interested in a hands-on approach than the university route, so I found a horticulture trade program at a school in Ontario,” Caddy said. “Our classroom was a botanical garden just outside Niagara Falls.”

After graduating from the Niagara Parks School of Horticulture, Caddy challenged the red seal exam for landscape horticulturist and worked at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton, Ont.

She has worked at the Devonian Botanic Garden for just over a year, as a horticulturist and curator in charge of the Patrick Seymour Alpine Garden. “As a horticulturist, I’m doing the hands-on, physical taking care of the plant, while as a curator I decide the direction of the garden and what goes where,” she said.

“I love being outside, I love working with my hands. I’ve always loved plants and taking care of them, and with my position it’s more than that. It’s a scientific collection. There’s a purpose to the gardens, a reason why we have plants above and beyond display.”