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.