[jdquinn]

Thanks for all the suggestions. My wife said not to worry about it for now and just concentrate on creating blank canvass to build from. I generally don't mind people coming round too much but the rear is in such a state that it's embarrasing, and Greengage, you are spot on, I should never have agreed to that pile of crap being dumped out the back. It doesn't drain well at all and as posted in another post I can either fight it costing me loads of money or create a garden using the conditions that are present. I don't like the idea of constantly battling with nature and detest the idea of throwing money at something which can never be perfect so I'm going to try to work with it in some way or another. I'll drain a small proportion so I can create a nice garden for the kids to play in and entertain from and the rest will end up something resembling a bog garden.

Oh and Greengage the farmers around me have absolutely no respect for my property and so I have little respect for them. A farmer I know that lives a few miles away says I have a few 'special' people as neighbors around here. There is just one farmer who I don't mind as he closes gates behind him, maintains his fences and generally works in a very considerate manner.

Thanks all for the helpful replies and banter.

Jonny

[Greengage]

sorry to hear about your bad experience with the farmers cannot mediate there, but best of luck with the garden, keep us posted were a nosey lot here.
The Farmer
BY W.D. EHRHART
Each day I go into the fields
to see what is growing
and what remains to be done.
It is always the same thing: nothing
is growing, everything needs to be done.
Plow, harrow, disc, water, pray
till my bones ache and hands rub
blood-raw with honest labor—
all that grows is the slow
intransigent intensity of need.
I have sown my seed on soil
guaranteed by poverty to fail.
But I don’t complain—except
to passersby who ask me why
I work such barren earth.
They would not understand me
if I stooped to lift a rock
and hold it like a child, or laughed,
or told them it is their poverty
I labor to relieve. For them,
I complain. A farmer of dreams
knows how to pretend. A farmer of dreams
knows what it means to be patient.
Each day I go into the fields.

[tagwex]

So what did you end up doing JD?

[Greengage]

Like lots of new posters disappeared into the woods..............

[tagwex]

Ahhh give him a chance. He might come back yet. We should all dig around the old threads and spark them up again. The departed ones will still get an email notification.

[Good guy]

As I remember it this man had a fairly lengthy thread dealing with establishing his new lawn. Hopefully, he will rise to the fly!
Well done for going fishing, Tagwex.

[tagwex]

If the search engine was working we could fish some more...........