Green-fingered teen tidies up
Maidenhead: 16-year-old helps neighbours with gardening
A Maidenhead teenager is using his love of the outdoors to help elderly neighbours with their gardening at no cost.
Nick Cowdery, 16, from Wavell Road, is an aspiring landscaper who has been using his free time to help older residents with tasks like clearing away ivy and weeds to rebuilding bins.
His first project came about when June Scuse, who lives on the Bath Road, expressed a need to tidy her front garden path last summer.
Nick volunteered to help her relay and straighten the brick path to avoid her falling and later pebbled over a patch in the middle of her garden.
He then offered to jet wash her patios and treat the area to stop the weeds coming back, working on and off for several weeks on a diet of bacon sandwiches and cake,
but no money.
The teenager’s next job occurred when tree surgeons cut back trees at the end of his garden.
This exposed some heavy ivy that was above his neighbour, Anne Short’s, greenhouse.
Having clipped back ivy on his side of the fence, Nick visited Anne and offered to clear the ivy over her garden.
The job grew and he noticed that the fence at the back of her property was being pushed down by the weight of the ivy and the growth of the tree, which he sorted.
Nick then offered to rebuild Anne’s compost bin and is hoping to source some slabs to make the pathway to the other compost bins and the greenhouse safe for Anne and her daughter.
Mum Kaye said: “Nick was not paid for these jobs and that is because he is a generous boy who is investing in his future by learning on the job.
“He loves the outdoors and prefers to be hands-on rather than in a classroom environment.”
She added: “He gets a bee in his bonnet about something. If he does your garden, he does a good job. He just gets on with it and it looks beautiful.
“It is good for him to get out in the fresh air – he does not expect to be paid for it.”
Nick hopes to start up a garden maintenance business upon completion of his GCSEs before saving up for driving lessons, after which he aims to buy a van and begin getting paid for his handy work.