Jobs for Autumn

Choose some border color. Does anyone have any ideas other than pansies?


Plant Joan of Arc crocus bulbs in the lawn.

Move fuschia bush away from the camelia shrub - so both can breath.


Move grape hyacinth bulbs that have gone crazy, away from the path edge to higher up the bank. Hopefully for a more even spread. I think the purple blue will look nice with the Red Riding Hood Tulips too.

Move the pretty yellow variegated ivy from under the fuschia bushes to a more visible spot.

SEPTEMBER SUNFLOWERS THAT DID WELL ON THE NORTH WALL

Gorgeous Cast Metal Furniture

Furniture - Gardening Gal loves this Restoration Hardware range! Wonder how much the shipping will cost....

Where to recycle electrical goods?

In 2010 I will have great hair whilst gardening. I am finally in possesion of a pair of ghd salon stylers. (small excited bounce).

Some may be cutting back due the Darling 2010 Budget but I am upgrading. Quality should be paid for says I.

The existing pair (3rd hand) had given me enough split ends, so it shall be relegated to the recycling pile. But wait - where on earth ( or on Guernsey does one recycle electrical items?).

Cheap electrical items cannot be - I have no idea how to dispose of it responsibly. How do you recycle hair straighteners?

Since starting this blog, I’ve been recycling with a fervour, using States provided glass, plastic, card, paper, aluminium, drinks cartons and metal at Guernsey Ferous Metals. Not to be smug, I have recycled printer cartridges, http://www.inkcycle.co.uk/; used ecycle http://www.thisisguernsey.com/ecycle for donate clothes, a cute Sony hi-fi, and been to the Oxfam.com shop for other items. I have even donated unwanted books to the 50p stall at Icart (yes that was me).

I refused to buy a new Dyson and instead fell in love with Valpy's and it's amusingly faux-beligerant staff to repair including a Miele vacuum cleaner. I even donated mobile phones to family members and broken ones to be refurbished in Africa at www.fonebank.com

My dear mother has also mended and altered many pieces of clothing too.

So what’s an gal to do about electricals?

Update: It's still worthwhile recycling according the The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/mar/16/recycling-waste-disposal
"Report for UK government refutes persistent claims that recycling is a waste of time, calls for better facilities and an increase in incineration"

Live - A Murder is Announced

Just like Agatha Christie's Miss Marple in a Murder is Announced, I was consumed by the mystery that was the dead birds and rabbits in the garden.

Fret no more, no wildcats here.... It's a HAWK! Or KESTREL! (or other bird of prey that I'm going to look up right now).

This is live blogging and viewing readers. How very exciting.

It's just like spring watch, except that you'll have to imagine Bill Odie sitting next to me.


Update: it was a Kestrel, due to its red feathers:

Murder on the lawn...

What a mystery, this week we had a murder!

It was a rabbit's body left mangled on the lawn. I assumed this was a fox but remembered Guernsey doesn't have foxes, squirrels or snakes. So no chance of a raving rabbid squirrel attack. Mixy-Ma-Toes-Is?

No!

Today at around 3.31pm or thereabouts, I noticed a bird carcass and lots of feathers 5 metres from the house. This carcass wasn't there at 1.05 pm when I hosed the thirsty plants. It being the same place, was this the Same M.O officer?

3 hours work for 2 pots - hmmm

That's a ratio of 90 minutes per pot. Admittedly, I did sand an old peeling paint terracotta pot to look older still (but better). Added to those 2 hours spent with the joys of the electric sander, I walked an hour's round trip to the hedge veg stall. You've never seen a brighter more sparkling sea, and more flowering paths on the way to buy maroon-coloured bedding plants to match the maroon Aeonium succulent.

Question - does only Guernsey have Hedge Veg stalls with honesty boxes?
ALSO - when did they become Hedge Veg stalls? We never had such snappy marketing speak for 'tomatoes sold on the hedge by Mrs Tostevin' when I was a kid.

AND - if I didn't actually buy Veg, but I bought plants and it wasn't on the Hedge but actually was on next to a beach slipway, do we need a new phrase? Bedding Plants on the Beach? Pots on the Slip?

What say ye merry guernsey gardeners?

Lizzie gets busy!

The geraniums in the stone well cum planter were all killed off by 'Feb 2nd 'Snow Day'. Some may have returned from the roots and short stems but frankly I enjoyed ripping them out. Pruning and cutting back is very therapeutic, even if you're not an overtly angry person it helps. Trust me.

So I have planted a mixture that hopefully will be a riot of pinks and reds, a coup of colour: upright Fuschia in the well centre, trailing fuschia for longterm and scarlet busy lizzies for this season's colour.

I hope lizzie gets busy soon as I'm excited to see how well she goes.