I took a look in our garage on Saturday morning and to my disappointment, no hedge trimmer. It had slipped my mind that last year our old hedge trimmer took early retirement, but luckily a friend had recently recommended RentMy - a website where you can rent items in your local area - and I’ve been keen to try it out! I immediately grabbed my laptop and a brew and started my search.

Straight away I found a listing for a petrol hedge trimmer, £15 for the day. Bargain! Within less than 15 minutes I had signed up and arranged collection: the hedge trimmer would be mine for the day on Sunday.

Collection was easy so I could get to work straight away. The sun was a welcomed warmth on my skin following the cold winter we had had and I suddenly began to feel excited for the long summer nights that were just round the corner. Throughout the cold lockdown, I had longed for warm evenings in my garden, hosting BBQs and laughing with friends and as I started trimming my hedges, it no longer felt like a dream!

I have some beautiful green in my garden and our hedges are a big feature that thankfully do not require too much maintenance: I tend to trim them once per year and at £15 for a day’s rental, why would I need to buy a new trimmer? There’s also the added benefit that my garage no longer needs to be clogged up with a trimmer I rarely use. There is no doubt I will continue to use RentMy for my gardening needs - the next project is building a pond, so I will certainly be searching for spades and diggers sometime soon! I might even rent out our wheelbarrow for the many weekend’s it is not in use.