The Three Gardens. Part One.

My garden needing a lot of work doing to it and so did my neighbours either side of me. I had been in a car accident and with the money from that I decided to at last get my garden sorted. It had been carried on from last year, and the year before that, when it was first started. I was given for this year the quote of £2,000, a lot of money! It was in budget, so I was OK with that. I had opened a separate account just for the car accident, so I could keep clear tracks on it, and when the money was gone, it was gone. I was hoping to get the kitchen done too, but new kitchens don’t cost two grand or less! I was quoted £18,000 this year so I gave up on the kitchen and decided it would all go on the garden instead.    

The gardener Tony is a perfectionist, I could not fault his work. Whatever I suggested, he would give me quotes in a text and would offer me other garden ideas.

My neighbour’s gardens were worse than mine, for at least I’d been doing mine for two years already, they had not done anything to their gardens yet. All three gardens are wide and very long. I get on very well with my lovely neighbours. I could see over my neighbour’s fences as it wasn’t that high. Out of the three gardens my was definitely the worst, to begin with! They have young children and it was very dangerous for their children to go in the garden with all the broken rocks and rubbish that was in there on the left of me and on my right, they had a massive drop half way down their garden. So, during the hot weather the kids on my left didn’t go in the garden at all and the kids on the right had to stay well away from the dangerous drop!

Both neighbours could see the progress on my garden and my neighbours during the course of Tony coming and going they would chat with him either at the front of the house or over the garden fence at the back.

The same as last year, the skip company had no permit, and this meant they were not allowed to put it outside my house on the road so it had to be round the corner out of my sight, in the cul-de-sac carpark. No one in the houses in the cul-de-sac knew who the skip belonged to. It was dropped off and the price would be £120 when it was collected.

The jobs weren’t by the amount of days that Tony would be in my garden, but it was done by his quote and my acceptance of his quote. So, it didn’t really matter how long it took, the price to get the garden done would be the same. I was very pleased with his work; he would start at around 09.30am after he’d dropped off his children at school and would leave mine around 5.30p. He never ever used our loo. My neighbour on the right after a few weeks asked him for a quote to do his garden too. My neighbour told my Husband Paul, “He wanted to do my garden for £6,000!” That’s a lot of money. My neighbour on the left was quoted £4,000.

During the first few days Tony seemed to think all the work could be done in less than a week! The sun was hot. Then soon after my neighbour on my left had two work men in, to do his garden. Tony had spoken to them; they didn’t speak English very well. Tony then started to criticize their work. It made me feel uncomfortable as we were at the bottom of my garden, and he would point over to my neighbour’s garden at the, “Shoddy work.” It would be totally unexpected, as we would have been at that part of my garden to talk about my garden, I was afraid my neighbour from their window would see Tony pointing towards their garden and I standing next to him, I didn’t want them to think bad of me. For my intention was not to bring bad feelings between us. For they are fabulous neighbours, in fact my neighbours are very good friends with each other. Both neighbours cook us wonderful food and give it to us at various unexpected times of the year.

One day I decided to speak to Tony about what was troubling me, and so I sent him a text. I explained, “My neighbours are dear to me, both sides are like family, I would rather you didn’t criticise their gardens while you are working for me. The day before while I stood in my garden my neighbour had stood at the garden fence and chatted, with Tony and me, Tony had told him straight what he’d thought of the, “Cutting corners of the workmen and that the work was done too quickly and cheaply.” I’d tried to change the subject, but Tony was on a roll. My neighbour said to Tony, “I can’t afford £6,000 so this is costing me £1,000.” That too is a lot of money. In my text to Tony I added, “Without the money from the car accident, I would not be able to even afford £1,000, for we are constantly in the red even when I get paid!” I finished with, “Please keep your views about my neighbour’s gardens to yourself, I would rather not hear it.” His reply was lovely, just like he is, and he said, “I didn’t mean to criticize, its just that I’m a perfectionist and it grieves me when I see cowboys in action, cutting corners and doing things clearly wrong. I promise I will not mention their gardens again.” I replied, “OK, thank you for your understanding.”

Then while it was still fabulously hot weather, Tony had the flu for ten long days, and was off!

While Tony was off sick, the work on the garden with the huge drop, quickly took shape and I was very impressed. I couldn’t wait for Tony to see it; I knew even he’d be impressed too.