WHAT JOBS ARE WE DOING IN THE GARDEN TODAY - 2017

And @"M" knows!!!!

 

@ricky101 I like that cold frame . It's funny (not really) that I wouldn't dream of getting it as I have trouble bending. So I've got a blowaway to use instead. You soon adapt to doing things differently.

We've done a lot in the garden this week. Michael, the young man who does the heavy work in the garden, has built a 150sq ft paved area as another nursery area. Paving free on a local forum, kerbings from a builders merchants that cost 25% less than on the docket (I mentioned it and the answer was "that's what the computer says" ) and sand and cement from a farm that has an aggregates firm based there (400yds down the road). We didn't realise how uneven the lawn was where we built it (I supervised ) till we found it sloped in two different directions

I've almost finished putting the chicken wire around the ShineyFrames (about 160ft of it), pinning it to the black membrane and then making uprights to stop it from flopping over. Whilst I was doing that, the cat from four doors away (who spends most of his time in our garden) brought me a dead rabbit (just showing off) before having it for lunch.

I've done about four hours of mowing, prepared a few hundred pots for Mrs Shiney to sow or pot on plants, edged all the lawns and the blackberry beds, dug out loads of broadleafed weeds, strawberry wee and buttercups. Kept moving the sprinkler around the garden (no rain for over two months) and will have to get the extension hose out to be able to use the sprinkler on the front garden.

Today I have a friend coming in to help me with fitting an oak fascia board on the pergola 22ft long and at a height of 8ft.

Ain't being retired fun - even after nearly 20 years

 

Whatever you do out there...

 

Reliable has a variety of meanings. He's a very nice person and works hard when told what to do. He's been working for us for about three years and we've taught him about gardening. He had been working as an odd job type man for his father (fencing, paving etc.) and his cousins (tree work, mowing) but decided he wanted to be a gardener.

He's reliable with his work but has back trouble - can't get it off the bed!!! so if he turned up by ten o'clock we were lucky. He also tends to have a habit of phoning and asking whether he can come on a different day (offered work by cousins who pay more than us!). He doesn't keep a diary, although we've given one to him, and occasionally forgets when he's supposed to come.

Having said all that, we have adapted to cope with it. We phone him a couple of days before he's due to come, to remind him. There's no problem when we book him for a Wednesday as that is the day he expects to come along. It's when it's not a Wednesday, but he never seems to mind working on a Saturday or Sunday.

So, overall, he's reliable in that he does what is required as long as we chase him to turn up. He seems to have improved as he has turned up at 9.30 the last two times. When we have him to work here he has a full day's work and gets a lunch as well. We've recommended him to others with the warning that his time keeping is not good. So they phone him the day before as well.