Sue and I were back at the large garden near Market Harborough again today and I really wasn't looking forward to going. Sue said she would pick me up at 12.30pm and I was hoping that the temperatures would be a bit cooler and the sun wouldn't be so fierce. Alas, I was disappointed.
I followed Sue in my car as I did hope that after we'd finished working I could go and collect Sophie. However, after I texted her she said she wouldn't be at work that long as they were quiet due to the lovely weather. Lovely weather, yes, but not for gardening!
We made a start on the leaves and weeds under the hedge that Paul trimmed last week and then we moved over to the other border and I started to wheelbarrow compost up the garden to add to the soil. The lady that owns the house had asked us not to use the top compost heap but to use the one that was almost rock solid...and very smelly!
It was very hard work and trying to actually dig out the compost was horrible. We spread a load on the soil and I carried on weeding while Sue edged the lawn and also carted a wheelbarrow up. There was a young man cutting the lawn and he looked like he was having the time of his life whizzing backwards and forwards on the ride-on mower while we slaved away in the borders! To make matters worse there had been a small dispute over whether she had paid us for today (no) and she hadn't left us a cheque for our work which was a bit annoying. I certainly wasn't doing this for the love of it!
I always said when I sold the business that I would not (definitely not) do something I hated for a job. Half way through the ordeal of doing this horrible garden it all became too much and I just felt I couldn't physically carry on any more. I don't know whether it was the heat, the fact that I gave blood yesterday evening or what, but I just couldn't continue. The thought of spending another two hours slaving away in the garden with the soil like rock and bending over in the heat to pull up weeds was just awful. The owner had asked Sue to pull up more of the Alchemilla mollis and we had both had a go at trying to get it out of the hard soil but it was almost impossible.
I felt like bursting into tears and said to Sue that I was going to stop and go home. She was surprised but sympathised with me and we both agreed that the garden needed at least one man to work on it for all the heavy and back-breaking jobs.
I called Keith who was also surprised as he knows that I rarely give up on something and I absolutely hate letting people down. I wish now I had been to see the garden with Sue before we took it on as I would have had doubts about it being within our capability. Sue had admitted it was the worst garden she had been to, purely because of the hard soil and the amount of plants that the woman wanted pulling up. I gathered up my stuff and drove home where I had a blissfully cool shower and tried to explain to Keith just what the garden was like and what it entailed.
We went to pick up Sophie and Mike and when we got back Sue had left me a note with some dates she wanted me to work, but not on that garden! Later in the evening she sent me a text to say that after next week she was going to give it up as it was much too hard work so I felt a bit better and not such a wimp!
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