Back in August 2018, I bought a removable rotary washing line for the middle of our tiny grassy area. The post is here. It was a wonderful idea and, every bright, breezy, sunny day, I’d save the planet a little bit by not using the dryer. Here is the one I bought:
And it worked a treat. The spike goes beneath the level of the grass and has a red plastic cap, which made it very easy to find each time I wanted to use it.
Then we went to Sweden.
And the grass grew and was cut then grew again and so on, and so forth. Until, upon our return, I could no longer find the spike with the red plastic cap.
During the awful weather we’ve had, this wasn’t a problem. In fact, had I had the washing line up during Storm Eunice I think it would be in someone else’s garden now, probably in Amsterdam.
Then, this week, the weather was perfect for drying clothes. In fact, when I last saw Vivienne she boasted about how she’d washed four beds worth of Manchester and dried it all on her line. I knew I had to do something about the spike with the red plastic cap.
My first thought was to idly poke at the ground with my walking stick. This proved completely pointless; the lack of a point being the obvious problem. I then turned to a big fork, with which I pierced the grass in the possible locations.
Gardener Dave was surprised I hadn’t measured (triangulated, I think he said) the location and drawn a sort of treasure map. I admit, I wondered the same thing.
Mirinda, being ever helpful, suggested I buy a new spike.
So, I did and it arrived today.
Having removed the yellow plastic cap, I spent a goodly time bashing it into the ground with a rapidly splintering piece of wood and a hefty mallet. At the halfway point, it was time to put the rotary line in and straighten it up. And it was now that I realised why the cap was not red.
Apparently, Brabantia colour code their spikes. Yellow is 50mm and red is 45mm. If one reads the description above, one can easily see that it does say 45mm. The problem with me is, I spotted the 50m first and assumed it meant 50mm. So, I had a garden spike, half in the ground, with 5mm too much space.
I decided to keep going – it would have been quite difficult to remove it at this point. And soon enough, it was ready to hold the washing line. I’d even put on a load of washing to test it.
I planted the pole in the spike and the 45° lean was horrendous. I managed to keep it upright by the application of a chisel, wedged between the inside of the spike and the central pole of the hoist. It sort of worked, though, obviously, it couldn’t turn in the wind.
It was then I decided to buy the correct size. I went onto Amazon and found the correct size and clicked on it. I was about buy it when I realised I had to buy two. Two? Seriously? Why would I buy two? If I specifically wanted two (maybe I had a large lawn and wanted to put them in different places) I would, surely, just buy two. It wasn’t as if there was a saving for two. It was just double the cost of one.
I was, in a word, furious. Both with the wastefulness and frustration at having to buy something I didn’t want or need.
I went elsewhere.
Homebase not only sold them in singles (with the red plastic cap) they were also cheaper. And it will arrive tomorrow. Obviously, this was the way to go.
Finally, can I just say that, even with the fixed lean, the washing dried beautifully. There is something so fresh about naturally dried clothes.
