Lawn-mowing, Falklands Style
When you need your grass cut the normal thing to do is get the lawnmower out. But what if you don’t have one? In the Falklands this isn’t a problem as people are always looking to loan out their environmentally friendly lawnmowers and it doesn’t cost anything. In fact, you do them a favour!
There is a real shortage of good grazing in and around Stanley but lots of people have horses. This leads to the predicament of what to feed them. During the winter this means they are often turned free to a large extent to roam over commons or islands. During the summer the predicament is lessened somewhat as people have gardens with rapidly-growing grass. The two problems – lawns that need mowing and horses that need feeding happily solve each other by putting one with the other. And so it is that we sometimes have horses in our garden!
In February we had an old friend back, accompanied by a new friend. Samira, a grey mare, had come to graze just before christmas. At the time she was heavily pregnant and when she came back this year she had a three-week old foal in tow.
This is them after they’ve eaten all our grass:
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They do a much better job than lawnmowers – they leave plants which mowers would just go straight over. The first time we had a horse I found a clump of chives in the lawn I didn’t know we even had! They get into all the little corners and the manure goes onto the compost heap and then onto the garden as great organic fertiliser.
The best thing is you get to look out of your window and watch horses in your garden! At times this is better than TV (although that’s not saying much given the quality of the one channel we have access to). Watching Pichachoo was particular fun. His legs were too long for his body so eating was a bit of a challenge. He had to either eat the long stuff or spread his legs like a giraffe drinking water to reach the ground. He was full of energy at times and would jump around the garden like a springbok! He was really sweet and so small. His teeth were all tiny and new, and his hooves were so cute! You could still see the remnants of his umbilical cord, reminding you just how young he was. it was a sad day when they left, but they left behind a beautifully mowed lawn and plenty of compost for next year’s vegetables! .jpg)
There is a real shortage of good grazing in and around Stanley but lots of people have horses. This leads to the predicament of what to feed them. During the winter this means they are often turned free to a large extent to roam over commons or islands. During the summer the predicament is lessened somewhat as people have gardens with rapidly-growing grass. The two problems – lawns that need mowing and horses that need feeding happily solve each other by putting one with the other. And so it is that we sometimes have horses in our garden!
In February we had an old friend back, accompanied by a new friend. Samira, a grey mare, had come to graze just before christmas. At the time she was heavily pregnant and when she came back this year she had a three-week old foal in tow.
This is them after they’ve eaten all our grass:
.jpg)
They do a much better job than lawnmowers – they leave plants which mowers would just go straight over. The first time we had a horse I found a clump of chives in the lawn I didn’t know we even had! They get into all the little corners and the manure goes onto the compost heap and then onto the garden as great organic fertiliser.The best thing is you get to look out of your window and watch horses in your garden! At times this is better than TV (although that’s not saying much given the quality of the one channel we have access to). Watching Pichachoo was particular fun. His legs were too long for his body so eating was a bit of a challenge. He had to either eat the long stuff or spread his legs like a giraffe drinking water to reach the ground. He was full of energy at times and would jump around the garden like a springbok! He was really sweet and so small. His teeth were all tiny and new, and his hooves were so cute! You could still see the remnants of his umbilical cord, reminding you just how young he was. it was a sad day when they left, but they left behind a beautifully mowed lawn and plenty of compost for next year’s vegetables!
.jpg)
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