Around the House Part 2

Unlike my lovely cleaning lady, the gardener was something else. He never seemed to be in a good mood and often argued with or ridiculed something I said. On the day in question (last Friday to be exact) he arrived in a snappy mood, grumbling that he had a lot of work on. I remarked that it was good to have enough work to keep going, but he retorted that it meant working the next day when he didn’t want to work the next day. He seemed rather put out about having to work at all.

We have trees all round the garden, which I love because of my fascination with birds, but admittedly they are tall and do stop the light from getting to anything growing beneath them. That doesn’t bother me because in actual fact nothing of importance does grow beneath them, just the odd bush or two and I just cut them back if they lean out too far. Gardener, however, thought the trees should be chopped down. They’re not his trees nor are they ours but I agree that we could prune them a little on our side of the fence. Eventually! ‘If they were mine I’d go round to your neighbour and demand that he removes them’ were his words, spoken somewhat aggressively.

I said the gardener was something else because he no longer comes. At least I don’t think he does... he drove off in an angry huff, without having touched a blade of grass except when walking on it. But I’m rushing on before the tale is told.

When he first started coming the man insisted on a minimum of two hours work, once a fortnight, by which time the grass is ready to be cut on two lawns which leaves little time for other work. He has managed to trim some laurel and a prickly hedge of mixed growth and apologised for not being able to do the tops of the hedge because of the sheer height.

I repeat, it was a hedge not a tree.

So when some sort of tree-fellers knocked at the door and offered to cut back a rather high tree I seized the opportunity to get rid of other difficult-to- remove stuff.... and that is what upset the gardener. As soon as he saw/heard what the other guys had done he took umbrage and stormed off. At first I thought he was going to collect his gear from his car. However, instead of getting gear out he was putting it back in. He slammed the boot shut and got in the car shouting ‘there is such a thing as loyalty’ before driving off.

So you see why I think we’ve lost our gardener! And good riddance. We can do without that sort of attitude and, let’s face it, there are plenty more around. Do you know what irks most? It’s that last flung remark about loyalty... from a man who only visited three or four times! If he’d been coming twenty years and some guy came and took over his job I could understand it... but three or four times? We’d hardly got to know him. You’ll notice I didn’t mention the man’s name and that’s because I can’t remember it... I didn’t know him long enough for his name to impinge itself on my silly brain. 

The story doesn't end with the man's departure as a new gardener has been taken on, one who seems more than willing to have a go. All I can say is ...