Hoarder at war with council over extraordinary garden is ordered to destroy it
A retired science teacher is at loggerheads with his council after it issued him with a legal notice to remove the beloved overgrowth around his bungalow.
William Cross, 79, is a hoarder and his garden is sprawling with greenery and rubbish - including plastic bags, tin cans and old packaging. William, also known as Glyn, says the garden is a shrine to sustainable living by reusing things and growing food.
But Cardiff Council became concerned the "accumulations" outside his home could be a home for rats. A district judge found Glyn guilty of failing to comply with a council notice to remove "general rubbish and ground-covering overgrowth". He was ordered to pay £400 and clear the garden in the Thornhill area of the city.
The garden has become so overgrown you cannot even see Glyn's house (John Myers)Speaking to Wales Online since his court appearance, Glyn said: "People will think I'm very eccentric but it doesn't matter... I am not proud of being a hoarder. I do need help, it's become too much for me to control at my age. But I'd rather pay people to help. I don't want to be bossed around."
Empty Actimel yoghurt pots cover the ends of branches (for the protection of Glyn's eyes, he explains) and piled-up milk bottles carry urine for fertilising plants and killing slugs. Glyn takes great pride in "the ecological side" of his garden but intends to clear it, hiring people to help him over the coming months.
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Glyn, who speaks softly with a Merseyside accent, grew up in a Welsh community in the Wirral. He studied chemistry at University of Oxford before becoming a science teacher, first at Cathays High School and then Aberdare Boys' Grammar School. "The boys liked me by the end. They cheered me when I left." He adds with a grin: "Maybe because I was leaving."
Glyn's environment is thick with nature and repurposed objects (John Myers)A ramshackle wooden trolley is laden with a peculiar array of items. A Hobgoblin beer can, which Glyn uses to collect rainwater for his plants, lies next to what was once a packet of Sainsbury's rocket salad. Glyn kept the watercress from the salad and used a mixture of water and eggshells ("for the calcium") to grow his own watercress from the same packet, with long roots sprouting. Cuttings from the kiwi vines and other branches and twigs have collected in something of a mountain.
Glyn grew up in a family of hoarders. He thinks his own hoarding may be linked to the trauma of losing loved ones, including his mother when he was in his 30s. He said: "My dad died in 1991, my aunt in 1996, another aunt in 2002. It was too much executor work for me because my family were hoarders. I managed to sell a lot of stuff with auctioneers but there were lots of small items to keep. Most of that is gone, except for things that are nice."
Following the death of his aunt in 2002, Glyn rented a home next door to where she had lived in Birkenhead, Merseyside, and he is still storing some of her possessions there. The stress of executorship saw Glyn struggle to "keep on top" of his own house, and the issue worsened after he and his wife divorced in 2012.
The garden is a shrine to sustainable living by reusing things and growing food (John Myers)He says the council got involved after a neighbour complained in October 2021 that rats had eaten their potatoes. Were there rats in Glyn's garden? "At the time there would have been. I treated them with Rentokil pellets and the council man did with his pellets as well. It was all solved by January 2022," Glyn said. "I am out here day and night with a torch, and I don't see any rats."
A spokesman for Cardiff Council said Glyn had been given "a significant amount of time" to "remove the build-up of waste and cut back the overgrowth". The spokesman added: "Unfortunately, this hasn’t been carried out, so the council has a duty to act due to the rat infestation affecting neighbouring properties."
Glyn says the council asked him to present a plan of action by September 18 — a deadline he did not meet. He says he was warned of a much heavier fine than last month's court sentence if he failed to comply, but he still seems determined to declutter the garden at his own pace. "I would like to get on with the job instead of continually interacting with people who are pestering me," he says, adding he will "try to stop" any council team sent to clear the site.
Glyn hopes to give some things away through local schools, so they can be enjoyed by others. He gives the example of some acorns he found on the ground near the Morrisons in Llanishen, which he has planted in pots. "Hopefully I can give them away as little oaks. It's producing trees for future generations." The wry smile returns. "I think I've got enough trees in this garden."
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