Dark Nights

Well its that time of year again, dark when you go to work and dark when you get home. So I have been online and ordered some seeds for next year, 35 packs oops lol. I found a nice site www.alanromans.com very good prices if you do not mine not having a glossy packet and can look online for sowing instructions. I have had a nice blessing this week, picked a skip up from the local allotments and there was a Dave Austin Rambling Rose on top of the skip. I took it back to the gardens and Yan and I gave it a light prune and have planted it - its got two chances now. We have been clearing up leaves and fallen fruit, but there seems to be a never ending supply of leaves. I find it hard this time of year so many jobs to be done and so little time / light. The greenhouse is now fully bubble wrapped and we have been searching for a suitable heater ready for the early start next year. The good thing about this time of year is that I have plenty of time to search for bargains and freebies. We have kindly been donated a garden bench that needs restoring and lots of plastic pots for the greenhouse, also some canes and two single stage tables. I have been looking on ebay at walk behind petrol leaf vacuums, but they all seem to go for a fair amount. I am hoping to find one thats broken that we can fix, we did this with the lawnmower and made a very nice mower out of two old broken Mountfield mowers that were donated to us.I had a little dream this week and looked at new leaf vacuums. You can get a home garden sized petrol leaf vacuum that is also a shredder and has a hose for your boarders like this:

http://www.mowdirect.co.uk/acatalog/MTD-YARDMAN-060-3-in-1-SHREDDER-CHIPPER-VAC-WITH-ON-BOARD-HOSE-KIT--SPECIAL-OFFER-.html?s=2091

Although I think this is a very good price compared to what else is on the market, it is still way over what we can afford. We have tried emailing some large local companys, but not had any replys yet (still hoping) and as they say if you don't ask you don't get.