Grandad's Garden

Grandad loved his garden, he spent hours and hours in it, attending to his plants and his lawn. If Grandad was really honest, he would admit, he was most proud of his lawn. His grandchildren loved coming to see him and nanny and simply laying on his lawn. Summer time was the best time, nanny made amazing afternoon tea and grandad bought strawberries freshly picked from the garden. Chloe turned to grandad and said,"Grandad, you really do have the best garden in the world. Your strawberries are really the best and erm can I have some more?"

Grandad, froze and looked like she was deep in thought, as though, he was thinking very hard, giggled and said yes. Nanny then asked Tommy, if he would like some more. "Oh yes please Nanny and can I have loads of cream too?" Everyone giggled and Grandad said "Tommy, yes you can, but be careful you don't get a stomach ache.

It was still summer, Grandad, made breakfast and walked out to the garden to admire his garden. He loved this time of day, but today was not a day he was going to love. He was so shocked, he dropped his mug of coffee, as he looked on at his lawn. Where ever he looked, there were mole hills and moles, his lawn was totally ruined. He started to run at the moles, but all they did was disappear the hole, then make a new hole and pop up somewhere else on the lawn. Very quickly,

Grandad stopped running at the moles, as he didn't need more holes in his lawn. Grandad telephoned his best friend Bill, who was a very keen gardener, he told Bill and Bill said he had the solution. Grandad was not impressed, with Bill's solution, but decided to give it a try. Bill's solution was lending Grandad his cat, blacky. He told Grandad that blacky loved chasing anything, especially mice and moles. So Grandad, put Blacky in the garden and Blacky went straight to a hole and sat there waiting for a mole. Blacky waited, but no mole appeared, in the end Blacky got so bored, he curled up in the sun and went to sleep.

When Blacky went to sleep, the moles appeared, Grandad chased them and more holes appeared in his lawn. Grandad had, had enough and decided, as much as he loved animals, he was going to have to put down some poison to get rid of them. However, at that moment his grandchildren arrived and hearing what Grandad was going to do, decided to help the moles. Tommy said to Grandad, "Grandad, you can't kill those moles, they are only doing what is natural to them. Let me have a look on the internet and find an friendly way of stopping your moles, without hurting them, Please, Grandad. "

One of the things Grandad, loved about his grandchildren, is the way they cared for animals and he hugged them and said, " I am very proud of you both, yes Tommy, find me a way of getting rid of these moles, without hurting them." Tommy searched on the internet and found a company who could do this. Grandad telephoned them and they promised to be there within 2 hours. They asked Grandad to enlarge the holes, so they could get on with their work straight away. Grandad was horrified having to make the holes bigger, but he did it.

The men arrived and the first thing they did was put some traps in the bigger holes Grandad had dug. They said it doesn't harm the moles and they would release them in nearby woods. Then they used a non-toxic spray, which moles don't like the smell of and makes them not return. Finally, they suggested Grandad planted daffodils and marigolds, as moles dislike the smell. The next two days they came back and emptied the traps, taking the moles away. On the second day, there was no moles left, so Grandad could fill the holes in and returf his lawn.

Six weeks later, the lawn was perfect again, you would never know that the moles had been there. Everyone was a winner, Grandad had his lawn back, the moles were enjoying their new life in the woods and his grandchildren had saved the moles.