The Head Gardener

	Home Back to OldTimeTim's Home Page
	Songs Back to Songs intro page
	* NEW * The Liar's Bench ...the times of our lives....
	A Prayer for Leadership ...and so deliver Albion....
	One Penny A Tune I'm scraping a living.....
	The Head Gardener In his little red weskit....
	Five New Heads A Music Hall style song
	The Migrant The fate of Charlotte Kimpton in 1845
	The Melancholy Wreck of the Gossamer The sad story, as described in a display at the Salcombe Maritime Museum.
	Down In The Dark The song of the badger
	Nothing that's left but the Squeal Celebrating the role of the pig in UK culture
	Dark Ember A country style song of unrequited love
	The Devil in York Traditional style chorus song based on a true story
	So Far From Home The Marching Song of the ghosts of the Ninth Legion
	Steam Again in Goathland Written at the time of the re-opening of the North Yorkshire Moors railway
	The Tale of the Christmas Tree fairy An epic seasonal monologue

As the winter days grow shorter and the nights are long and cold,
The harvest work is over, all the surplus has been sold.
So I dig and prune and tidy 'til I'm ready for a break
Then I notice someone watching as I lean upon my rake.....

In his little red weskit and his jacket of brown,
That's when the old head gardener comes down.
He chirps and he whistles and he hops all around,
In his little red weskit and his jacket of brown.

When the apple buds are bursting and the frosts are all but gone,
And the daffodils and crocuses look up to greet the sun,
All the seeding and the potting takes from morning until night,
And guess who's hopping over, just to check I did it right? ........

In his little red weskit and his jacket of brown,
That's when the old head gardener comes down.
He chirps and he whistles and he hops all around,
In his little red weskit and his jacket of brown.

Now the bees can tease their magic from the lavender and rose,
but I must tend the bedding with the water can and hose,
Still I find a little moment just to sing a summer song,
and when the chorus comes around he's there to sing along. .....

In his little red weskit and his jacket of brown,
That's when the old head gardener comes down.
He chirps and he whistles and he hops all around,
In his little red weskit and his jacket of brown.

Now the year's work's nearly over and the harvest days have come,
so we're picking and we're stacking till the dimming of the sun
but when we break for bread and cheese and warming harvest ale
he is there with a chirrup and a flicking of his tail....

In his little red weskit and his jacket of brown,
That's when the old head gardener comes down.
He chirps and he whistles and he hops all around,
In his little red weskit and his jacket of brown.

Origin of the Song

Having retired I thought I had seen the end of having someone watch over what I was doing

How wrong could I be?

Joking aside, it's marvellous how tame the robins in the garden become, hopping around your feet whenever you're likely to turn up something they could eat.

Downloadable Media files.

Here's an mp3 recording of the song.

A printable lyric Sheet

Here's a downloadable / printable pdf lyric sheet