My horticultural activities have been at a minimum for a while as I have been holding off waiting for my new patio to be completed. Unfortunately it seems that we have fallen foul of an attitude that can be common amongst builders. This is not to say they are the same, I have friends that are builders and are very studious (unfortunately they live 500 miles from me).
The work was initially scheduled to be done over Easter. We contacted the builder a few days before and he put us back 2 weeks. Then we chased him again but he didn't answer the phone to us and didn't return any of the answer phone messages we left. Eventually the missus tried dialling his number with a 1471 prefix, and we slipped up and answered the phone. He said that he would be with us in 2 weeks, we gave him an option to back out, if he didn't want to do the job, or he had realised he had priced it wrong. He said he was still up for doing the work and would see us in 2 weeks. Two weeks later he didn't appear, so we had to try to get someone else to do the work.
Fortunately the next guy we found was very good at turning up and has done a fine job, but the patio remains unfinished 3 weeks after he started it. Unfortunately we were unable to get the tiles we wanted from the suppliers. We had to wait until after the suppliers two weeks summer holiday for them to make some more, and when they arrived, about an eighth of the tiles were chipped. So the garden is only nearly finished. All of the veg is sitting down the side of the house feeling dejected, the Chilli plants are still in the house covered in green fly and me, the wife and the kids are without a usable garden.
