We've had some great new products in lately, all to help us prepare for autumn and the big garden clear-up that comes in its wake. It's time to start trimming, pruning and clearing up those past-it plants and preparing borders, window boxes and allotments for the next season. But it doesn't have to be back-breaking work:
The "Handy Hands," so called because it's, well, a really big pair of plastic hands, will help you clear up dead leaves, stems and other garden debris in no time. Also available is a Heavy Duty version (right), which reduces the need to bend and stoop quite so much.
In your haste to clean up the fallen leaves this autumn, don't forget that they are a great source of nutrition for the soil. Either add them to your compost bin or turn them into a mulch. We recommend using these Jute Leaf Mould Sacks; they are 100% biodegradable so they decompose alongside your leaves. You can just store a sack full of leaves under a bush and wait for it to magically turn into a healthy mulch that will really give next year's plants a boost.
This Berry Picker is great for conducting a speedy berry harvest. It's really satisfying to pull the little berry heads from their stalk necks and pop them in your mouth, but if you have a fair few to harvest this tool will be a real time-saver. It contains a comb which cleverly separates berries from stems as you work it through the bush and deposits them into the red plastic container. I made a sweet vanilla and blackberry cake with my fruit. What will you do?
And finally, there's no time like the present to do a little maintenance on your herbs. Our herb drying kit contains new seeds (vervain, balm, mint, rosemary)and everything you need to dry them out for future use. I have the most fragrant sweet basil at the moment, and there's nothing like hanging it up to dry to fill the house with a delicious scent.
