by Jenny Holmes

Created on: November 19, 2009   Last Updated: December 03, 2009

I don't know if you would class this as my funniest gardening experience on a personal level but I am sure anyone looking down on me from on high watching would have had a rib tickling laugh.

It all started early one morning when I drew the curtains in the bedroom and looked out at my beautiful garden at the rear of the house. My husband was working abroad, in fact in Russia at the time, in the cold wastes of Siberia as manager for an American oil company. I had no idea when he was due home and could not contact him by e-mail or telephone. To this end the panic set in because as I gazed lovingly at the myriad of flowers in borders and tubs surrounding the pond my husband had meticulously designed and made I thought to myself that something was radically wrong. I quickly donned my dressing gown and ran out to the pond which was empty except for about 5 inches of water in the bottom where his pride and joy were floundering away his large very expensive koi. My heart was pounding, I felt dizzy and sick and just ended up running around and around the garden not knowing what to do. Eventually I calmed down and ran inside frantically putting an old pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Before I ran back outside again I looked at the clock and saw I was due to be at work in one hour help!

Once outside I grabbed the garden hose, turned it on and ran back to the pond whereby I threw it in narrowly missing Claude my husband's favourite and very friendly koi. These koi I might add were approximately 12 inches long. We had grown them so to speak from when they were babies. God they were my husband's babies!

Once the hose was in place I ran back inside, quickly had a shower and prepared myself for work. I worked in a lawyers office so the garb was dark suit, white shirt and heels. Once attired I ran out again to the pond. The water was half way up and seemed to be staying there, thank God I thought. The fish were become more frisky and happy, again thank God. However, I then had more heart pounding. My husband was always very careful when it came to his fish and had told me more than once that they must never be put into untreated water straight from the tap. What should I do? If I didn't put the water in they would die but maybe they would still die anyway because it was just plain old tap water. I ran into the shed and searched around for the powder, or was it liquid, he put into the water. I found some liquid which looked as if it might be the one so ran back to the pond

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