Monday, May 03, 2010

Sold into hard labour

Back in January, Andrew, Carol and I, calling ourselves Linden Ground Force (after the similarly-named BBC garden makeover programme) were sold at auction for £100. Back in January the prospect of having to do any gardening seemed a long way off but, eventually, the day had to come when we had to earn that money.

The couple who bought our services wanted what looked like a small piece of ground cleared and turfed. Trouble was that there were two deep-rooted shrubs and hundreds - nay, millions - of bluebell bulbs just under the surface.

It looked like this before we started. (Oh, yes, I should have mentioned that recently-retired Husband was press-ganged into helping.)
And this was after the four of us had put in three hours of hard work.
Next week we'll go back and turf it.

The money, by the way, went to Mutende Children's Village in Zambia, towards the cost of a school that's being built there.

Husband has just taken George out for a walk but as we have Thrive (circuit training) tonight too I declined that option. Whatever happened to the idea of a nice relaxing bank holiday?

9 comments:

Leslie: said...

Good job! That looks like it would have been back-breaking. And I notice that you've all stripped down some, too. Warm work?

DeeJay said...

great job. I'll know where to come when the allotment needs digging over in the winter!!

NitWit1 said...

Yikes that is backbreaking labor. Bet Husband thought of coming out of retirement after that stint.

jay said...

Gosh, that looks like hard work! Well done! Did you manage to save the bluebells?

The ones in our garden are not just under the surface, they are about three feet deep! Where they are is where they'll stay ..

jams o donnell said...

It#s great that your hard graft gave a nice looking garden and some cash for a very good cause. Good on you and your groundforcers Liz!

CherryPie said...

All in all it sounds it was well worth it :-)

Gledwood said...

You should have strapped George to a donkey-cart and made him trot off with piles of excavated earth...

Liz Hinds said...

It was warm, leslie. I started off warm and got got progressively warmer!

Who you're going call? DeeJay

Strangely enough he enjoys physical work after years of office work, nitwit.

Yes,jay, we planted them in the bank at the bottom of the garden. Well, some of them. We had loads at all levels. far more than had stuck their heads out.

Thanks, jams. We kept telling ourselves to think of the children in Africa!

It was - or will be when it's finished, cherrypie.

Why didn't we think of that, gleds?!

The Fairweather Blogger said...

I have my wife to do the gardening! (Much cheaper) Are you sure you're all in the same garden as when you started? The house seems to have been replaced by a tree.
Anyway, looks like you all worked up a sweat and it was all for a good cause. Well done!
Gary