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  Colin Hunt March 29, 2013 at 8:11pm

  S*d it - another 30 years to go then!
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  Eugene Baston March 29, 2013 at 8:39pm

  Brilliant!

  I'm a complete sucker to this sort of scenario, always wanting to give a hand gratis. I so admire the resilience of people older than me to 'carry on regardless'.

  Plus you can learn so much when you get talking to 'an old hand at gardening', along with the inevitable 'providing company and chit chat' aspect.

  It does cost me time but invaluable learning time all the same.

  Nice one Paul....."more power to your elbow".

  Cheers, Eugene
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  Derek Tucker March 31, 2013 at 11:21am

  We have a fantastic customer who is now 82 and still has a large round of gardens that he mows. I think he still does a 5 day week, and one of his contracts is with a family that he started working for aged 14, and has worked on their gardens continuously ever since. That has to be something of a record!
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  paul mcdermott June 23, 2013 at 8:29pm

  Just an update,as we were leaving the old boy asked for one of our cards,gave him one and never thought anything about it,then a couple of weeks ago he rang asking for our help/job quote.Called in last week and blimey what a garden!Absolutely crammed with fantastic specimen plants (acers,rhodies,azaleas and a huge amount of rare magnolias).The lawns (all five of them!)are immaculately cut and edged and the immediate borders tidy but beyond that its getting a bit out of control and thats were we come in.We start the week after next and will get some photos(with permission)
  The old boy in question is 92,a widower(sadly),has type 1 diabetes,a retired neurosurgeon and totally on the ball claiming that the gardening keeps him fit and sane!
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  Ian Olpin June 23, 2013 at 8:47pm

  Great story, Paul.

  A customer of mine is the same age, was building a paved path for him to get to and fro his new summerhouse. The old summerhouse was where he'd smoked his pipe, being banned in the house by the wife, and was impatient for the path to be built. He'd had a stroke and was using sticks, but managed to keep mobile, albeit very slowly.

  One day he'd tottered down the slope for his afternoon smoke as usual, and on his way back up, stopped briefly alongside where I was working to say "It'll be hard for you to believe I know, but I once walked 500 miles in Burma.." !!

  They don't make 'em like that any more.
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  Colin Hunt June 23, 2013 at 9:05pm

  'Young guys' all too soon turn into 'Old boys' - only the body changes! A thriving business here awaits a 'young gun'!!
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  paul mcdermott June 23, 2013 at 9:22pm

  Excellent quote Ian,interesting and poignant worthy of its own post maybe under the most interesting/bizarre/outrageous quotes from our older customers,will be poking (gently) our old boy with a stick until he produces the goods!
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  chris June 23, 2013 at 9:46pm

  Fantastic Paul just goes to show it pays to do a good deed now and again had a similar story the year of the terrible winter couldn't get out the drive snow and iced in so I thought wonder how some of my older customers are coping so I got a wheelbarrow went to supermarket filled it with bread and milk and dropped some off you should of seen there faces on the way back had a couple of pints left and a loaf so I thought I would give it to someone was going past a huge house where I saw this old boy struggling to clear his path I did it for him and he said whats the story with the milk I told him the story gave him my card and the milk had a long chat about the weather spring came and he called and said when can you start it pays to do a favour
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  Lawncare-4u.co.uk August 31, 2013 at 9:20am

  Had he been doing it for 75 years , or was a recent hobby ??!