‘It’s that time of year,’ muttered Sludge. ‘Rain, rain and more mud – just as I like it. He started wriggling away from the green and towards the surround when he saw Campbell starting up the green sprayer. ‘Watch it,’ groaned Poa, who was resting nearby. ‘What’s wrong, Poa?’ asked Sludge. ‘Trolley wheel ran over me and I’m sore.’ Sludge saw that Poa had a dark bruise on his back to add to the old carbendazim scars he had. ‘That’s nasty,’ said Sludge. ‘When a wheel went over me, all I got was indigestion. ‘These wheels had hard rubber bumps on them. Apparently they protect a wet course and the Pro calls them hedgehog wheels’. At the mention of the word ‘hedgehog’ Sludge shuddered and he shrank back to a mere inch in horror. Hedgehogs were the dinosaurs of the worm world and very partial to juicy earthworms. 'I found out one good thing today, Sludge’. ‘What’s that?’ ‘They’ve put up a sign - ‘No hedgehogs allowed’. ‘About time we were appreciated. Don’t they know we eat the nematodes?’ They lay in companionable silence luxuriating in a pile of wet leaves. ‘What’s that smell?’ Poa said suddenly. Sludge took several sniffs. ‘It’s certainly not garlic, or compost tea, or Colman’s mustard powder ,’ he said. ‘More like the smell of soup from the half way hut’. Both of them slid to the surface and peered out. The greens were being sprayed by something that left a sticky black film over the fine turf. A tin of the stuff was nearby. Before Sludge could stop him, Poa had slithered over to a patch of the black goo by the tin and tasted it. ‘Stop,’ shouted Sludge. ‘It could be poisonous and kill you.’ ‘Naw – it’s delicious,’ said Poa, with a broad smile. Sludge stretched out to read the name on the tin and then tentatively tasted some of the stuff. ‘Yuk!’ Sludge shuddered with disgust. ‘I hate it.’ ‘What is it?’ ‘It’s called Marmite.’ ‘I love it,’ said Poa. Click here to see our range of green keeping tools.
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