fionamw

B******** b******** & etc....you get the idea. Anyone know of a good reliable preferably Spanglish speaking Honda agricultural machine workshop within striking distance of Malaga? Strimmer just spewed out bits all over the campo & I just know with this sun after the rain, the triffids will have a field day......

rugbymatt

GONZALEZ BENITEZ ANTONIA AV REYES CATOLICOS,50 29130 ALHAURIN DE LA TORRE MALAGA + (34) 952412411 + (34) 952412411
TIENDA JARDIN LOS MATA, S.C. CL COM.GUADALMINA, LOCAL 4 29670 SAN PEDRO ALCANTARA MALAGA + (34) 952886865 + (34) 952880304

rugbymatt

They appear to be main dealers and service points, so will no doubt be helpful if you need to fix etc.................


Hope they are near enough.

fionamw

Brilliant, thanks. It needed a service anyway so this is the last straw!

fionamw

Someone's suggested a place in Velez, which is nearer - however if this fails, Alhaurin de la Torre it is come the weekend..... thanks again & if anyone knows another Honda place just in case, pretty please?
no doubt it'll rain in the meantime

bil

By triffids, do you mean the vampire weed ('cos it's so hard to kill) ? I call them 'hijas de la luvia' daughters of the rain, because the bl**dy things just appear from nowhere after rain.

Fleshy stems and leaves, a bit like a succulent, yellow flowers, puts out flowers very quickly, can grow to the size of a dustbin lid and produces millions of seeds like black dust?

The only thing is to rotivate before they have more than 4 leaves, or else their survival rate goes thru the ceiling. The only way I have found to cope is to rotivate pdq, never allow them to set seed, and remove every scrap that rotivation won't kill, and burn it or bin it.

I don't know if it is possible, but the idea is to so deplete the seed bank in the soil, that it is no longer a problem. We succeeded with this strategy in the UK against cowparsley, but it took a couple of years. It was so dense and widespread that we couldn't use herbicide, but in three years we had effectively eliminated it in an acre and a half of shrubs and lawns.

fionamw

Actually by triffids, I was just trying to be funny/clever - however I know just the one you mean. If I've got it right it's the one whose seed heads blast open at the merest touch..... (if it's not that one, then there's another that does. Mind you that is closely followed by wild artichoke, whose simply beautiful seed heads proceed to attempt world domination at the first sign of wind.... or fennel, which doesn't mind too much if you don't let it seed because its roots are so b****y firmly embedded in the ground you stand no hope of extracting it. btw I don't use herbicide, so manual techniques are it for me! btw#2 What's a lawn

bil

I wouldn't have a lawn if you paid me. Well, ok, but only if the pay was good.

Any blade of grass grows on my patch and it dies. I love glyphosphate/roundup, it is god's gift to the struggling gardner. Use it sensibly and sparingly and it is a valuable servant. Before you start shrieking about the environmental impact, it breaks down in the soil tooty sweety. It's not like I hire a spray plane to blitz the whole province with Agent Orange.

If it's any help, cut the two outer tines off a long tined fork. The resultant two tined jobbie will penetrate deeply and easily, and doesn't disrupt the soil too much. Failing that a touch of roundup, and ....

fionamw

Bah humbug not if you paid me..... well ok but not if you paid me less than five figures.... no, six!

(then I could make a hefty contribution to Spain's no doubt struggling Green Party!)

bil

It's just that a lawn requires a lot of work to look pretty average, and a deranged level of attention to look good. Add to that the need for watering in Spain's climate, and I just can't be bothered.

fionamw

Lawn's rock (yes, I know the punctuation, thank you!)

rugbymatt

Yeah, and its a different prospect falling asleep pissed on a gravel patch at 3 in the morning!

You end up waking up looking like a pebble-dash house!

fionamw

lightweight! Here it's rock or abyss.......................... oh, and pebbledash is so 70s, darling!
ps took it in to a Husqvarna place in Velez...... come Lunes, we'll know if that was a bad idea

rugbymatt

Husky are a good company, I have Husky chainsaws and machinery, they will sort it......

bil

I used to like the smell of a fresh cut lawn, but I have cut enough in my time to be sick of it to be honest.

They say that to keep a lawn weed free, you need to cut it every day (that's in the UK) Trouble is that if you cut it too short, it can't collect enough dew of a morning to stay alive without regular watering.