Yippee-new gardener started today

You both can look forward to long summer afternoons slipping a G&T or two in the pristine Newquay gardens.

Good luck with DH new hip

thanks cherry tree. Still have to ring hospital in the morning before setting out to see if he still has a bed but ever hopeful. . . . He mowed lawn yesterday-it is nice and flat and he just walked up and down with mower. So when said gardener comes next week he can finish trimming bushes in large bed of shrubs. He is partner of local tree surgeon so really knows his stuff-hurrah!

I hope the op goes ahead as planned, and best wishes to your DH for a good recovery.
How lovely to sit back and enjoy the fruits of somebody else's labour! A friend in her 80s has just taken on a man to cut her grass. I am sorely tempted to follow suit, but can't really justify the expense as I can manage my steep lawn at the moment, much as I hate doing it.

The gardener we had before the present one was also with a firm of tree surgeons. He was very expensive and only really wanted to do the shrubs and trees, not the lawns or hedges.

The one I have now will turn his hand to anything (not tree surgery, of course!) and does a fantastic job for £10 an hour.

Glad you're happy anyway, Newquay, it can be hard persuading Head Gardeners to delegaate!

I had a friend recommend a couple who agreed to replant my now raised bed which needed lots of soil to raise the surface. The woman is a teacher at the local comp and she enjoys her garden and does this as a sideline.

This couple carefully dug out all the existing perennials, put in 2 cubic meters of soil and put the plants back in, this took them about three hrs. They worked really hard and it cost me £90. They worked incredibly quickly and it was money well spent.
The plants had looked dreadful until they were put on top of the new soil layer. I did not take a "before photo" as it had looked so dismal since the autumn. This garden revamp will make it easier for OH to mow. There is still a smaller alpine bed that needs similar treatment. I can deadhead, divide clumps and prune etc but not do heavy digging. Still work in progress. My plan is that a flower bed stuffed with perennials does not need a lot of work.