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Ha tell me about it! My gardening customers keep asking for their lawns to be cut, and it's almost a weekly job if they want short grass.
I'm lucky that gardening is my supplimental income; on the nursery we have weeds growing because we can't spray and can't pull them quickly enough, plants rooting very slowly because they don't get enough sun, nutrients being washed out of the compost (which probably doesn't help their rooting) and to top it off a reduction in customers because in all too many cases people can't even walk on their lawns let alone plant things in their borders.
Roll on 2013.
Today is the first lawn cut I have had to cancel, using a combination of strimming smaller long lawns, and using the roller mower to reduce marking, I have managed to carry on through most of it, but there was a monsoon today from 3pm and it has only just let up.
What have we done to deserve this?
Same here in West Yorkshire, All the problems you identified -
-Double the waste to take away due to Heavy WET grass growth
-takes 50% longer to cut
-cant cut some days as its wetter than December and the mower would just leave MUD behind
-Flower displays not growing as the soil is washed clean of nutrients in the top 10cm of soil..
- Flowers not flowering because its just not light enough to trigger them into flower... only a few petunias are doing well
- Some flower Rotting away in situ because their sat in waterlogged soil for 8 weeks straight....
- SLUGS for crying out loud.... the rain washes the slug pellets away within 2 days of putting them down... Lost over £160 of bedding plants in the last 10 days and counting due to slug wipe-out (Mostly petunias and Tagetes).
(Oh and one garden was under 6inches of water for 2 days while it slowly drained away...)
I've had 3 customers asking me whats going on with their bedding flowers this week, 2 last week, They understand - but its hard not to feel bad when they are disapointed with the results - even if its the blood weather.
Roll on dry weather, let alone 2013.
Same here in SE Essex - officially the driest part of the UK! At this time of year, we usually have 2 on maintenance and 2 on construction projects, but it's all we can do to keep up with the maintenance with 4. We are juggling our mulch cutting when we see a dry day - and they are few and far between. Makes me wish I still had my old Condor tucked away, because she would have been fired up by now and made short work of wet lush grass.
This is definately the worst summer I have experienced in the 36years we have been going, all we can do is plug away, not get too down - we will soon be crying out for rain!
We just lost two contracts (same agent) because they said that we hadnt been for a month, YET we had been only two weeks earlier! (twice a month job)
I honestly dont think ive ever had a spring and summer like this. Everything is growing so so much. We are doing tasks and a week later it looks like we hadnt touched it!!
So in a way im glad im not the only one, but this has been a hell of a year so far. I am hoping for a really hot aug/ sept so the growth slows a bit. But i very much doubt it!!
It is getting to be a joke tbh - im working 6 days and driving past jobs done 7 days previously.... and worrying like mad because they're looking untouched..... So far my customers are understanding, but much longer and I will need to cancel a holiday to keep on top of things.... and beyond the end of July I dont know how I can keep up! diary is becoming a joke too!
I might direct one customer to read this thread- as this week we had one man who was disapointed in the speed of our guys- despite them working in the rain- with a hayter, mountfield and our ride-on Westwood. All three were struggling and in the end we finished early and decided it was better to come back when it was dry.
Every garden we have is taking longer- and shrubs are just growing sooo fast- some look untidy after even two weeks!!
We had the same storm here last thursday Helen. never seen anything like it , village even got flooded as our little beck burst it's banks. We even had a tornado about 3 miles away, quite a big one too. Unbelievable!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TXE6W7-41Y
http://www.sleafordstandard.co.uk/news/local/breaking-news-tornado-...
As for work, i'm struggling on, every job taking longer than it should, and just getting a bit fed up with it all now.
Helen Dawe said:
If make you lot feel any better its the same in NI,
Spent weeks on and of between rain trying to remove gravel, re-plant and mulch a very large flower border beacuse it got to wet to work on it was a muck quagmire, cutting lawns on a ride on is near enough impossible.
Yip sluggs have gone mad, trying mashed up egg shells around plants now as slug pellets dont last hope its not and old wise tail.
Hi Helen,
The way I see it, if the garden is in good condition already, then you are maintaining it.
If no-one has touched it for weeks, months, year or 2, that's renovation, a completely different challenge.
One that we are often faced with.
When people call you to look at their weed-infested, un-pruned, out of control garden, and state that they want it maintained, what do they mean?
Customers need to face up to their reality and realise that gardening is a time-consuming all year job & that smart gardens, don't just happen, and don't stay smart long if zero effort is put in to them.
Something that is sorely missing from BBC GW & garden TV progs et al.
Helen Dawe said:
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