Over a month long of chasing has gotten me nowhere.

We had some work done to our garden, namely a tree to be taken down, the root to be taken away, and the tree to be logged into firewood, with the ground being levelled.

The word undertaken by Ideal Landscapes (referred to as “Ideal” from here on in) was far from ideal. A catalogue of problems arose after allowing these people to undertake work for us. I guess I should start at the beginning, which is more then “Ideal” could do, as they undertook the work three days early. This wasn’t a massive problem aside from the fact that we had warned our neighbours of the impending work date.

Whilst the tree was indeed taken down, it was also taken away, leaving us without the firewood. Now the tree was between 45-50 feet hight, and around 1.5-2 feet thick at the bottom. Admittedly the wood would have required drying, but that is exactly what we intended to do. Estimates for this amount of firewood amount to anywhere between £200-£500 that I’ve seen so far.

Next, they did indeed take the root out, or some of it. I understand it can be hard to properly get rid of roots, so that is bye the bye I suppose. However, they were also to level the ground, something we spent the best part of a week doing.

“Ideal” left refuse (that they were contracted to take away) not only on our garden, but on our neighbours garden. Fortunately she has been cool about the whole situation, and whilst we gave her a very nice bottle of wine to say thank you, we should probably make that a few more.

And as a final insult, “Ideal” needed to bring in a digger to get the root out, and so had to take down the fence at the bottom of our garden. Far from safely re-attaching it, they simply cut the bolts holding it to the fence posts and left us with a future repair bill.

We paid “Ideal” £475 (inc VAT) for this privilege.

So we sent a letter, detailing why we were unhappy and what we wanted doing. No response. I phoned the number, which re-directs to a mobile, and after several attempts finally got through. Cue apologies, several promises to bring the wood round and sort the fence. Nothing about levelling the ground or getting rid of the rubbish, but I figured that was the best course of action. Of course nothing happened.

I then opened a case with Consumer Direct, the public facing arm of the Office of Fair Trading & Standards, who advised me to send a letter again, recorded, citing the Sales of Goods & Services Act.

So we sent another letter, this time by recorded delivery. This is where things started to get odd. First of all, Royal Mail said they couldn’t deliver it as no one was there to sign. Then a few weeks ago, we had an answer phone message from someone who said that they had lived at the address “Ideal” gave us, and that they had done so for over a year.

A few things strike me as odd here: firstly why would you sign for mail that was addressed to someone you know used to be at your address, surely you would tell the postman and send it back? Secondly opening mail addressed to someone else is an offence, and thirdly, if this had been happening for over a year why would you still be opening that mail to send it back to the sender? And fourthly, they managed to get my first letter, so why not the second?

I’ve spoken to the Insolvency Register to find out that they are a Ltd company and are not insolvent, so far so good.

And so I’ve been trying to find out where this company is actually based. I looked up the company on companieshouse, and then contacted the south Cambridgeshire District council to try and find out what type of property is registered at the address “Ideal” gave us. Due to Data Protection regulations however, they couldn’t help me. So I contacted the Valuation Office Agency, who obviously couldn’t tell me who payed council tax on the property, but that the premises is registered as ‘Domestic’.

As an aside – Ideal Landscapes by Design Ltd is registered to the above address on CompaniesHouse.gov.uk. It is a legal requirement to keep these details up to date, and an offence not to inform the register that your details have changed. So one way or another, “Ideal” have broken the law.

Sadly, this is where my trail runs out, and Consumer Direct can help me no more.

Edit:
I guess I could turn to Anne Robinson..

I can’t even tell dear old Anne about it because the Watchdog “Your Story” form is broken. Typical.

..flies when you’re having fun.

I haven’t had much activity to talk about lately, except to say that something wonderful has happened to me.

On a sad note, the aphids have won their war with my beans.

Delivered this morning.

Lets hope I can fill more then one of them with potatoes!

My ladybirds arrived today. A couple of my bean plants have started to be attacked by aphids, and hopefully these critters will solve that problem .

My potatoes are doing fantastically well, and my beans are starting to flower. I’m having a problem with aphids now, but hopefully some ladybirds coming next week will sort that.

More gardening done, and hopefully more vegetables to grow.

Sweetcorn and Squash

Tomatoes

The new patch

My concern for this particular patch of vegetables is that they won’t get enough sun. I’m cutting back a tree to remove the biggest amount of shade, but I may have planted these in the wrong place. I guess time will tell.

And so on Wednesday I became a gardener at Trinity College, Cambridge, for the day. My good friend George is head gardener there, and I wanted to learn some tips from him about lawns, and also about what kind of things one does in that kind of job.

It was a great experience, and the lifestyle certainly suits me I have to say. Now if only I could do that every day instead of working in an office.

Broad Beans

My beans are starting to look pretty glorious in the sun now, and my potatoes have finally started to show through.

I have some broccoli plants in the car, ready for planting tonight.

A friend, Huw, kindly donated some flowers which I hope I can cultivate properly and persuade to grow.

Yellow Loosestrife - Lysimachia punctata

Helleborus foetida - stinking hellebore

I also started to dig out the bed on the left side of the path, which is in a horrendous condition.

I’ve planted beans, potatoes, raddishes and onions. I also plan to plant some sweetcorn soon. This is a first try for me, so no idea if they will come out well or not but it’s worth a try.

Potato Patch

Broad Beans