A GREEN-FINGERED gardener can help cover up those bare patches in your garden providing you let him strip off first.

As The Naked Gardener, Phil Davies, of Shelley Road, Ashton, Preston, says business is bloomin' great since he started gardening in the nude.

The 33-year-old said he gets dozens of enquiries a week from many middle-aged women who, he claims, enjoy watching him get stuck in to their lawn with not a stitch on.

One woman even donned a saucy fetish costume to watch Phil in action.

It is a job Phil has been doing naked since February and something that started out as a joke with a friend.

"I had to shut down my company, P Davies Garden Care, a year after opening because of rheumatoid arthritis in his back, hips and knees and it got too painful for me.

"But I'd decided I wanted to get back into the business but wanted a catchy name.

"We all came up with the idea of The Naked Gardener and my friend put it on a website as a wind-up.

"I was really shocked when lots of people showed interest. I said I was going to do it so I had to follow through, so I put posters and business cards in the local shop."

It was not long before the offers came flooding in and, although he does a lot of business with his clothes on, he said he gets a lot of requests from plenty of women for his naked services.

He said: "Women often book me but then their friends turn up too and they all sit having a cup of tea watching me.

"It's funny really.

"One time I was mowing a lawn when a 60 or 65 year old popped her head over the fence wearing leather nipple covers and a very small thong.

"I didn't know where to look. I just politely declined and got on with my job. I've also shocked a few pensioners on the street too when I've been throwing things in the skip. They always have a smile on their face though."

Since starting the company up Phil has faced sub-zero temperatures but this does not faze him. "I strip off and start mowing," he said. "I just make sure I work a harder so my blood pumps faster and I feel warmer," he said. "It's the nettles and stones that fly out of the back of the lawnmower I worry about."

Now Phil has big plans to take his business nationally and possibly abroad.