[jambutty]

I used to like a bit of gardening but my tired old body cannot do any these days. I wasn’t very knowledgeable about it save for the basics. But I could read and understand what was written on seed/bulb packets and in books so my previous gardens were OK if not spectacular. I was able to grow some very nice radishes and lettuce but was a complete failure with carrots.

My current garden was until recently a wilderness of grass and the odd wild flower. My landlord (Twin Valley Homes) was constantly bleating about its wilderness and just wouldn’t accept that I was growing various varieties of grass. No sense of humour some people.

So a couple of weeks ago I hired one of them rotavator things and my 25 years old grandson spent an afternoon churning everything up until it looked like a ploughed field. A quick rake over, by him, made it more or less levelish and I sowed a few packets of meadow flowers and a patch for some poppies. The poppies, if they come up, will form a large V shape in the middle. V for victory of our forces in two world wars and a subtle gesture to my landlord but it will go over his head.

Beware when hiring petrol engine powered gardening tools from Smiths on King Street, Blackburn. I couldn’t hire it for just the Saturday at £27.50 plus vat, it had to be for the whole weekend but they did knock off 20%. It was delivered on the Friday late afternoon with a full tank of petrol and was due to be collected on the Monday. Charge of £4 each way.

Monday afternoon came and went and no collection. I rang them. Sorry we forgot was the reply. We’ll collect tomorrow afternoon. Yup! You’ve guessed it. I rang them at about 4:30pm on the Tuesday. The van is in Lower Darwen, he’ll be with you very soon. He never arrived.

Wednesday. I still have your rotavator and if you don’t collect it today I’m charging you £20 a day storage. By the way why have you charged me £4.50 for 5 litres of petrol when the tank only holds one litre? That’s fraud. Eventually I was offered a refund of delivery charges and the £4.50.

I’m returning the machine with a full tank and when the driver calls make sure that he has all the money with him. If he hasn’t he doesn’t take the machine away.

They eventually arrive on mid Thursday morning with the money in an envelope and took away the machine.

And now I want some rain and look forward to a garden of meadow flowers and poppies in a month or two.