Hi, I've seen a few post with reference to bits of gardening, lawn mowers, strimmers etc..., But........

We have just moved into a nice house in Geneva, and have a front and back lawn, when we moved over I left all my gardening kit for our tennants back in London (stupid boy!), now as I like a lovely green lawn I need kit, do I ;

Nip over to France every week and buy as much as I can do and bring it back (obviously making sure I stay within the import regulations, wouldn't possibly buy too much in France and find an unmanned customs point, tsh!)

or

Go *** it and purchase the lot (mower, strimmer, hose, sprinkler, fork, rake, blower etc..,) in Jumbo in Geneva

Just asking for advise really, main lawn at the back is about 150 m2, two smaller ones at the front I'm going to dig out and replace with raised herb beds as they are just too small and north facing, so would be ideal for this.

a lawn?.. IN Geneva? ... why not just let the gardener take care of it?
.


(( seriously our house came with lawnmover and over the years [10+] I've nipped over St.Genis to get what I need .... p.s... know of any deals on a strimmer ... that is my new "must have" ))

Bearing in mind those lawnmowers always break down and you need a guarantee, it may be a better idea to buy in geneva to avoid having to run the thing back over the border each time it refuses to start.

With a lot of people always coming and going in GVA, you might find some good deals when someone moves house. I generally see a lot on the WRS classifieds http://www.worldradio.ch/classifieds/ and they used to have a friday morning call-in live classifieds, not sure if this is still part of the program or not. Also, look at EF classifieds, any moving sales, and perhaps notice boards where you work. Typcially people spend a lot and buy new, only to leave in a couple of years, and have to get rid of it all. We lucked out and the previous owner of our place left everything for us as was moving to an apt. and didn't need it.

since WRS went big time I don't think they do the phone in show anymore, but yes there are loads of bargains on their classifieds.

Note that it is more cost effective to declare purchases in France at the border so that you don't pay the higher French VAT and pay the lower Swiss VAT, than to not declare them.

Tom

One personal tip on the mower - buy mains electric if you can. Cheaper, lower maintenance, less vibration and less noise nicely make up for the inconvenience of the cable. For a small lawn the cable shouldn't be a problem.

If your lawn area isn't too big, get one of these - gives a better cut, and good exercise.

Great point! Then bring it in legal like....

We have an electric/battery mower; you plug mower into the house electric to charge it, then mow. No cable to trip over, quiet (for a mower) yet heavy-duty enough to do a good job. One battery charge is enough to mow for about 45 minutes. OH recharges after each use, the mower is then ready to go when needed.

We brought this one over from the US (and then OH did something to make it compatable with CH electric... no idea what) but similar mowers can be found here. This mower is at least 15 years old, maybe closer to 20 - so we've had good use from it.

Battery/electric is a good compromise.

ETA:

And if you have the space to store it, get one of the hand mowers that TiMow recommends as well. Why? Because it invariably rains on Saturdays here, precluding mowing on one's only free 'noise-allowed' day. The hand mower can be used on a Sunday.

Thanks guys, good advice, the mower is something I'm thinking of getting actually in Geneva as I've a good 150 m2 of lawn, and I know what a pain they are when they go wrong, now as a Londoner with amazon and argos when something broke down, I'd just buy new, next day delivery (for free) or pick up in store! It seems that I'll go to France soon and declare it all

Now, although I stated 'it has a lawn' it should have been 'at the moment it has long grass, weeds, crap and needs a lot of work to establish a lawn' but, it has the potential, and I have competition....... judging by the names on the post boxes (and the colour and standards of the lawns) there are about 5/6 other English/Saffers/Antipodeans around here, so I can't let the side down.

Yes there is the get someone it to do it, but I must have something to do, and I miss gardening (must be getting old!) - although I can't do it on a Sunday........

there's one coming in the ALDI (do they have aldi in the french part ?)

http://www.aldi-suisse.ch/ch/html/of...9_DEU_HTML.htm

yes there are Aldi here.. but this is a little heavy duty for my tiny garden... I could rent myself out to the entire neighbourhood with that baby.

That's what mr. 30cm thought too

You can garden on a Sunday, just not make noise - usually that means using power tools.

Weeding, planting, handwork - all perfectly acceptable. After all Sundays are for relaxing - and what could be more relaxing that pursuing one's hobby in one's garden?

And if anyone should object, quote Matthew back at 'em.

Whatever you decide make sure it has the harness option. they don`t look like much but they get heavy very quickly -especially the petrol engine ones.(the strimmer that is)

ya have to remember ( how could you forget ) I'm American...
... we're used to toting around big tools.

Yeah I know about the noise thing, which is a shame as normally it was the only full day I'd get, so off to lunch with friends, both families came back and we'd send the children outside to mow the lawn etc.., and the eldest were only 7 and 6!

Still, I'll have to get some shears and a nice sharpening stone (hmmm now whats the French for that......) if it's not too expensive would that classify as noise or would it be Swiss enough to not be noise?

That was exactly my intention when buying it a few years ago - however for a non-motorised m/c it still makes a fair amount of noise. I've only used it with trepidation on a couple of Sundays only - and not for very long.

Even the most delicate-eared Swiss will not approach a man in the process of honing a razor-sharp edge to complain about the noise.

(Although you might get an anonymous note in the mail box the next day...)

Seriously, though - my husband uses his sharpening stone any time he wants, as do many of our neighbors. It's quiet enough for Sunday use. Then again, we live in what used to be a farming community; life is yet not totally suburbanized, some of the old values still persist. When in doubt we ask ourselves: WWFMD?

(What would Farmer Müeller do? ).