As winter creeps up on us, it’s time to think of our feathered friends by installing a bird feeder (called a mangeoire in French) in your garden or on your balcony.
Model pictured, ‘Bruna model 325 cabane’, available from Truffaut. Made from high-quality, solid wood sourced from sustainably managed forests, it has been painted with weatherproof paint. The sloped roof protects the food from moisture. Dimensions: 33cm long x 22cm wide x 26cm high.
To fill it, simply remove the roof of the house and fill it with fat balls (boules de graisse) or nuts (des noix).
Reduced price at time of going to press, €40.90.
Jobs for the potager
There is plenty to be done in the potager this month: trim back your autumn-fruiting raspberries after harvesting, plant out garlic, shallots and onions (in soil with good drainage or raised beds). Harvest carrots, turnips and cabbages.
For a spring harvest, sow peas, broad beans, and carrots now, either in a greenhouse or directly in the ground in regions with mild winters (choose a sunny spot in the garden).
Lamb’s lettuce (la mâche) is delicious all winter long – and tough. It can withstand temperatures down to around O°C. In regions with mild winters, you can sow it in well-exposed outdoor beds.
New gloves are a great Christmas gift for gardenersBlackfox
Give gloves with love
Ad
Dare we mention the ‘C’ word already? Snap up an early Christmas present for a gardener in your life, and make it a sustainable one, with these Eglantine gloves, made from GRS-certified recycled polyester knit (from recycled water bottles). Coated with natural rubber to ward off thorns! €6,90 from Blackfox.
Insta-jardins
Hemerocallis are a speciality of Breton grower Guénolé SavinaInstagram/guenolesavina
Instagram is a brilliant
place to enjoy other
people’s gardens in
France, with everyone
from visitors to chambre
d’hôtes owners posting
seasonal snaps and
quirky updates from
their gardens (users can
search using hashtags
#jardins, #monjardin,
#jardinage or #potager).
This month’s image comes from guenolesavina a specialist hemerocallis (daylily) grower in Plouédern, Finistère.
