Mrs Gummy suggested to The Zoonies that they do some gardening, as long weeds were now creeping up the sides of their wiggleship that was parked in their back garden.

It was time for action!

Mrs Gummy had kindly lent them her old lawn mower that had a seat on it and a small steering wheel and it chugged loudly away as Mrs Gummy very slowly drove it into The Zoonies’ back garden. It did look fun to drive!

Mrs Gummy stopped the engine and she slowly stepped down from the seat.

 ‘zoonies, this is very easy. To start the engine, just press the green button for go.’ She said, pointing at the green button.

‘To stop the engine, press the red button. But whatever you do zoonies, do not pull this lever back or you will go backwards!’ she said firmly.

‘Thank you Mrs Gummy!’ They said shaking their heads, when they should have been nodding instead, and with that, Mrs Gummy slowly waddled off back to her house next door.

The sit down lawn mower only had one seat on it, but The Zoonies decided that it was only fair that all five of them try to sit on the lawn mower at the same time. This wasn’t a very good idea. Wiggle sat firstly in the seat. Little Woggle looked puzzled, scratched his head, and just sat in the foot well my Wiggles big feet.

Then Giggle sat on top of Wiggle. Then Tiggle also tried to climb on top of Giggle but suddenly tumbled off onto the long grass.

 ‘Ouch! My bottom hurts!’ she said. ‘That is all your fault Giggle!’

‘Silly zoonies!’ moaned Poggle. ‘Let me try!’

With that, Poggle also began to climb on top of Giggle on the seat, but Giggle had a surprise for Poggle – and without him looking, took out a prickly pine cone out of his pocket and placed onto his lap ready for when Poggle would sit down.

Poggle climbed up onto the lawn mower and sat down.

‘Arrrggghhhh…!!!!! My bottom.!!’ He cried out and jumped back down.

‘This isn’t going to work, zoonies.’ Said Wiggle who still sat in the seat on the lawn mower.

‘You climb off, Giggle. I think only one of us can power this craft.’

With that, Giggle climbed down, leaving Wiggle in charge of the mower.

‘Now. Stand well back zoonies. I’m going to take off. Now, which button did Mrs Gummy ask us to press to start up this craft.?’ Asked Wiggle looking puzzled.

‘I think it was the red button.’ With that, Wiggle pressed the red button. But nothing happened.

‘Mrs Gummy said to pull the lever.’ Said Poggle.

‘No she didn’t.’ replied Giggle.

‘Yes she did’ Said Poggle.

‘No she didn’t.’ replied Giggle again.

Mrs Gummy had told The Zoonies not to pull the lever back, but Poggle HAD forgotten. The Zoonies now were very confused indeed.

‘Stand back zoonies!’ said Wiggle and with that, pulled the lever.

‘Whooosshhhh..!!!!’ Suddenly the lawn mower went backwards with Wiggle at the wheel, trying to hold on, whilst The Zoonies ran terrified into the house to hide!

The lawn mower was out of control and going around backwards and in circles, as Wiggle didn’t know which way to turn the steering wheel in the confusion.

The other zoonies looked on still frightened from the loud noise the machine was making and the fact that it was out of control.

‘Press the red button!’ shouted Tiggle over to Wiggle.

Wiggle managed to do just that. Finally the lawn mower stopped going backwards and in circles and stopped.

Wiggle felt so giddy, that as he stepped off from the mower and fell into the patchy grass with his head still spinning around!

The lawn looked a mess – now all covered in squiggly circles in the long grass!

The Zoonies had had enough of mowing the grass.

Mrs Gummy suddenly popped her head from over the fence.

‘Oh zoonies! What have you done!’ she said shocked, looking at the squiggly lawn.

‘Don’t worry.’ She said. ‘You can prune the rose bushes. I’ll bring round the shears.’ She said.

With that, Mrs Gummy reappeared a few minutes later with a pair of garden shears.

‘This is what you do.’ She said, and with that, she cut a small dead end branch off. ‘When you cut it back, it will grow back even better next spring.’ She said.

That seemed simple enough, The Zoonies thought.

‘Thank you Mrs Gummy.’ And off she disappeared next door again.

The Zoonies only thought it fair, that they share the job of trimming the rose bushes. There were five rose bushes in total, and as there were five of them, they agreed to trim a bush each.

But before they did anymore gardening, they went into the house to have a long drink of fruit juice, as gardening was very thirsty work indeed.

Refreshed, they wiggled back out into the garden.

Wiggle decided to go first and trim the first rose bush along the side of the fence as the other zoonies watched on.

Chop. Chop, chop, chop.

Chop, chop.

This looked much easier to do than mowing the grass!

Next to go was Tiggle.

Then Giggle.

Then Poggle moaned about trimming his rose bush.

Last to go was little Woggle, but who halfway through trimming the rose bush, felt very sleepy and just wanted to have a sit down on the grass instead, and so didn’t quite finish the last rose bush.

‘That was easy!’ they said.

Suddenly,

Mrs Gummy popped her head again from over the garden fence.

‘Oh no, zoonies!’ she said shocked, holding her head in her wrinkly hands.

‘Where are the rose bushes?’ she asked.

‘We have trimmed them.’ They replied all at once.

‘But there is nothing left. They are all gone!’ she replied shocked.

The Zoonies had forgotten that they were only meant to have trimmed the dead ends of the rose’s bushes. Instead, they had chopped them all down!

Silly zoonies!

The only small rose bush that remained was little Woggle’s, as he was too tired to finish trimming his rose bush.

Next was the weeding.

‘This job is very easy to do.’ Mrs Gummy said to them from over the fence.

‘Where you see the weeds growing through, you simply pull them out! And afterwards, give the flowers a water with the watering can.’

Simple, thought The Zoonies. This they can get right.

Mrs Gummy disappeared from behind the fence.

The Zoonies weren’t actually sure which were weeds and which were the flowers.

The Zoonies liked the look of the weeds and so they pulled out the flowers instead. Oh no. Mrs Gummy won’t be very happy.  Silly zoonies!

The weeding done, they take hold of the watering can filled to the top with water, and sprinkle all over the weeds.

Mrs Gummy suddenly popped her head from over the garden fence.

‘Oh no, zoonies! You have pulled all the flowers up but kept the weeds!’

Oh dear, they thought.

‘Next time, we will do the gardening together.’ She said.

‘Only one more job to do, zoonies and this job is rather fun.’ Mrs Gummy continued.

Mrs Gummy pointed to the vegetable patch area and the bags of vegetable seeds.

‘Just plant the seeds and water them. From the seeds, fresh vegetables will grow for you to eat!’

Yummy, yummy they thought.

This job they could do easily, as The Zoonies used to grow vegetables and fruit on their old home planet.

The seeds planted and watered, The Zoonies were feeling tired from working so hard in the garden, even though the garden looked a bit of a mess.

At least they will have their vegetable patch to look forward to growing.

The Zoonies went back into the house, had a soapy bath together and had a fruit juice before going off to bed and rest, to save their energy for tomorrow.