Tag Archives: Garden

I Am About to Name and Shame Our Plumbers

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Who we’ve just fired, but I thought I’d name and praise our gardeners, first!

When we moved into our rental house 5.5 years ago now, it was October and the lawn was dormant.

And then it was spring and it started to grow. And we hauled out the mower and Simon tried to mow. He was not successful.

So we ignored it.

Then my mom and step-dad came to visit and step-dad insisted on giving it a go.

So he did.

Then he left.

And we ignored it.

And then the house next door started having Moulds Gardening Services do their lawn, very surprising as the man who lived there seemed to love doing his own lawn, but whatever!

So I walked over to the guy doing the mowing and asked if he’d have a look and give me a quote to do ours.

I don’t remember what the exact figure was at this point, as it was a bit more in order to tame the wildness of our lawn, but after that first mow, it was £15 every two weeks.

And William and his then very small team (him and another man) started regularly mowing our lawn. I barely saw them, an invoice hitting the matt every two weeks, unless I was home and paying attention, and then I’d pop out with a cheque and for a chat.

Then the weeds went mad and the hedges needing trimming and there was William happily working away, neatly, cleanly and with reasonable prices.

And then we moved to our house that we own. And it was time to start actually caring about the lawn, since it was ours. And William has been right there with us the whole way.

At this point, William has expanded. He has at least two branded trucks and I saw him driving a plain one just today so a third one may be in the works. He has several crews working for him.

And he and his gang of merry men are amazing. They show up when they say they will. They trim and mow and pull weeds and do plantings and are just spectacular.

Our weeds were out of control again and so I sent William an email asking him to sort it. He said he’d be here this past Friday.

And then before the end of the day Friday he sent me an email apologising for not getting to us but we would be done first thing Monday.

 

Our weeded back garden.

How first thing?

One of his men was working on our weeds when Adam and I left for the school bus at 845 this morning.

That’s how to run a business.

Stay tuned for how not to run a business…

So We Saw The House Again Today

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and it is officially ours. We move in starting 14th October.

So house. With garden. Some of which is plain old dirt. The owner, who was living there and is now heading back to Tokyo after 15 or so years here in Belfast, told me he had successfully grown melons in it. I told him that I was hoping to do the same.

Except, I know nothing about growing food. I have planted flowers, in planters, on a patio in California and watched them die. Even though I did everything I was suppose to; watered, weeded, talk to. Still died awfully quickly.

So…now I want to plant food. Potatoes maybe. Peas. Beans? Melons? Definitely some herbs would be nice.

I’m not even sure where to start. Maybe the library? ‘How to grow food with no talent and a black thumb’ would be a really useful book right now. Do you think it exists?

So, I’m looking for advice. So far I have been told I should wait a year and see what might still be planted, although the beds look empty, because there might be perennials that will come up in the spring. Perhaps plant in some pots and transfer them if nothing comes up.

So, anyone have any advice for the novice gardener with a black thumb who would like to use this opportunity to save some money, dig in some dirt and teach her son things?

Oh wait. Dig in dirt. That’s means bugs, doesn’t it?

Perhaps this isn’t such a good idea…