Well matched with Argos :-)

Some of you may have noticed the odd post labelled "paid for" now and then on here; I sometimes accept payments for writing about a product or company I either use or would be happy to use; these are always written entirely by me and are all my own work, with a link or two to the company involved. Of course I also always link to charities and causes I believe in, as well as writing about anything I think you, dear reader, might find interesting or useful.

I accept these few, carefully chosen paid for posts without any apology because I need to pay for the hosting of this site and also I do need to make a small amount of money, one way or another, to buy food for people, cats and hens, as well as seeds and plants and suchlike. If I can combine writing about things I believe in and get paid for it as well, that's win-win in my book. And I always tell you if the post is "paid for". 

I also often get asked to host so-called "guest posts" on here, these are where (I think, as I have never done it) I am paid to let some one else put up their words on my blog. Quite why anyone thinks I would want someone else's words on my blog is beyond me, but there you go. Obviously I do sometimes quote from press releases, but that is different and I make it very clear if I am doing so.

And then of course I get asked to review things. Lots of things. Some really quite strange things! Some are really wonderful and I am so pleased I said "yes please send me the item", some I read the email and laugh and send a polite reply declining to be involved.

Sometimes, though, I am contacted by someone offering me something to review, or some paid for writing work, who actually seems to have read my blog and taken on board what we try to do here before getting in touch. One such offer came a few months ago in an email, giving me the chance to choose anything from the home and gardening section of the Argos on line catalogue.

I thought hard and talked it over with Compostman and finally came up with a few "needs" and a couple of "wants". Sadly the top item on my "need" list was no longer available, but I had several other things in mind so that was OK.  The other items were all in stock and would only take a few days to be delivered. I was then contacted by the courier company to tell me the delivery day arrangements.

And so last Saturday we took delivery of a collection of gardening related items. They all came  from Argos including a really useful Hozelock collection, which was on my "need" list near the top. All the items arrived when they were supposed to and were well packaged and undamaged. 

We have several water taps around the place; one on the back of the garage which has a hose connected for the polytunnel ( where I use my lovely Hozelock watering lance) another tap which has a Hozelock hose reel for the veg garden watering and another tap further down near the borehole, which is for general garden use. We also have a tap on the back of the house. So you can see we need lots of hoses and connections and I was very pleased to get this really useful 50 m Hozelock hose and connection set as part of my Argos review.- definitely a "need" !
 
The next item on my "need" list was a new wheelbarrow. We have three wheelbarrows and are always squabbling over who should have the empty one. This one is mine, all mine. And as it is bright yellow, it won't get lost in the wood!

The wheelbarrow came flat packed but it was less than 10 mins work to put it together  - well it was zero mins work for me, as Compostman did it for me :-) It has a galvanised steel frame, a plastic pan with a pneumatic tyre and holds 85L of stuff

It is very comfortable to use and has soft grips on the handles; I immediately filled it up with compost :)

I also got a new pair of  Fiskars Smartfit Bypass Pruners, to replace a pair which Compostman was fond of but which were stolen. These are for general use around the garden, pruning and snipping and cutting back shrubs, They have a very comfortable action and grip. 

And finally a strong lightweight aluminium step up platform,  ideal for painting ceilings, picking fruit and standing on to photograph Tree Bumblebees in our bird box! Compostman says it is just what he needed to comfortably paint the bedroom ceiling, as it is just the right height so he does not have to crank his head over to the side while painting. He obviously likes it as he is painting as I type this review :-)

 

 

I would like to thank Argos for providing me with such a great selection of goodies from the Home and Gardening section to try out. It looks like I have an excellent collection of really useful stuff and thumbs up so far to Argos for both the quality and the delivery :-)

I'm off to play with my new Hozelock watering kit and my wheelbarrow now, I will write about my experiences in a later post :-)