Bargain Buying & Rabbits Sorted!

Last week we popped into the great metropolis of Bangor to do a bit of shopping. On the list was some flex so we could put a lamp on a bookcase a few feet from the nearest plug socket. Since we were passing B&Q I dropped in and yes, they had a 5M length of 3 core 0.75mm flex. The bad news was they wanted nearly £11.00 for it. I suppose some people would just pay that but I couldn’t bring myself to it.

Today I was dragged out happily took Val shopping to Porthmadog. We called into Wilkinsons and I got 5 metres of 3 core 0.75mm flex for the princely sum of £1.95, which bought a smile to my face.

Thence onto Aldi where a terracotta wall thermometer was on sale for just £3.99 along with some large plastic trugs, a garden incinerator and some compost for the wall pots, all at bargain prices.

Garden Bonfires

Bonfires, despite being great fun, are no longer popular to say the least. Many allotments ban them completely and few don’t take a dim view. Yet a fire has one benefit that people seem to have forgotten, it sterilises.

Composting done correctly will kill most diseases but note the words done correctly. If the compost hasn’t heated fully then problems like club-root or onion white rot will just spread in the compost.

Using an incinerator concentrates the heat ensuring a thorough burn. Wood ash is a great fertiliser anyway and even the diseased plants will safely add their minerals to the ash.

We also dropped into a car boot sale where we bagged a pot grown horse chestnut for a pound. I’m not sure where it will end up so for now we’ve potted it on. On the subject of trees, I’ve found quite a few self-seeded sycamores at the back of the house in a border. These will be potted up and planted out in a year or two as part of our environment improvement.

Rabbit Problem Solved.

I mentioned the problem with rabbits recently and had a few offers of help in controlling their numbers. Well the rabbit problem is solved. One of our cats is a super hunter, she brings home 3 or 4 mice a day. Now she’s started on the rabbits. The first one she brought in alive and I let it go, now all we get is some bits and entrails left lying on the floor.

I can’t say I like her hunting, she also catches the odd bird which we hate. But she’s doing the job cats have done for man since Egyptian days, rodent control operative.

Posted in Allotment Garden Diary
7 comments on “Bargain Buying & Rabbits Sorted!
  1. Swing Swang says:

    Sycamores! Each to his own. Fast growing weeds in my opinion. At lest you’ve not decided on Cupressocyparis leylandii.

  2. John says:

    So what’s wrong with growing sycamores along with the other native trees?

    • Drew says:

      it’s the words “other native trees” taht give it away. Sycamore are not native to the UK but are actually an Iberian tree, so best to plant real native trees, e.g. field maple.

      • John says:

        @Drew: Well I didn’t know that – in fact finding it quite hard to get hard information on growing trees except bio-fuel willow plantations which isn’t what we want.

        Any suggestions for good books on the subject welcome!

  3. Colin says:

    Sycamores have been used for windbreaks in agricultural area for ages.
    They can grow into fine specimens in the right place.
    It is of course the seedlings that are the weeds, but then so are ash and birch for example, not to mention elder and alder and hazel!
    But with both rabbits and sheep around most of the seedlings will be munched.
    But beware of the dreaded blackthorn! It looks lovely in the spring and sloe jam can be made from the fruit, but it spreads like mad and the thorns can penetrate tough gloves then break off leaving the point in your fingers to irritate or fester.

  4. M. Golding says:

    At just 3 months old rabbits are of breeding age, a single pair of mature rabbits can produce more than 3500 offspring during the course of just one year.

    If this is your solution your cat has his work cut out.

    Ours was a laptop cat until we also moved to a farm. Its now a highly tuned killer of mice, rats rabbits and much to my wifes contentment, he now chases spiders about the house too. We dont like him getting the birds either. Hes much happier outside hunting than being stuck indoors these days but does still love a bit of lap time in the evenings.

  5. John says:

    We’ve got 6 cats of which 2 are real hunters, 3 sort of hunt and 1 is a bit scared of mice. I know the statistics for rabbits breeding but that assumes they all survive etc. Apart from the cats there are foxes and buzzards around.

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